Has West Virginia Fixed Their Issues in the Secondary?

WVU's defense played the pass better in Week 4, but there's still room for improvement.

The first three games of the regular season sparked major concern as West Virginia's defense allowed well over 270 yards per game through the air. Transfers Garnett Hollis Jr., Ayden Garnes, and Dontez Fagan weren't playing up their ability and because of their shortcomings, it forced Neal Brown and Jordan Lesley's hand to make some changes heading into the Big 12 opener against Kansas.

Jacolby Spells and Colorado State transfer TJ Crandall earned the start and played well for the most part. Crandall exited the game with an injury on a punt return and did not return, but is not expected to miss much time, if any. Meanwhile, Hollis had a bounce-back performance and Garnes did a decent job despite playing a position he hasn't repped a whole lot of.

“Well, we did better," Neal Brown said when asked about if the pass coverage is fixed. "I don’t think we’ve arrived by any means. I think Jacolby (Spells)...first significant playing time of the year made two critical errors but the ball didn’t find him a whole lot and I thought he did some good things fundamentally. (TJ) Crandall up until he got hurt…he’s got to recognize some personnel things. You got to play it a little bit different when you got tight ends compared to receivers just from their speed. But I thought he played some quality snaps. We wanted to play Ayden Garnes mostly at corner, he ended up having to play the nickel. He did some good things, but he also showed that he hadn’t played in there a whole lot. But from a schematic standpoint, I think we did a better job in the secondary.”

Getting Spells and Crandall a healthy chunk of game reps is huge, especially heading into the bye week. They're able to take more time to digest the film, learn from their mistakes, and get ready to put an even better product on the field next week in Stillwater.

This is also a great opportunity for Jordan Lesley to hit the reset button in some ways. Don't expect wholesale changes, but he can make significant tweaks during the bye week that could lead to more consistency for those guys in the back end. The front seven is doing a great job of applying pressure on the quarterback through the first month of the season, so if the secondary do their part the defense could look night and day better in Big 12 play.

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