Sunday Morning Thoughts: Troubling Signs on Defense Once Again

Recapping West Virginia's 49-14 win over UAlbany.

Schuyler Callihan | Sep 8, 2024

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West Virginia Mountaineers

The main reason FBS teams schedule games against FCS opponents is to allow them to either figure things out in Week 2 and 3 or to act as a tune-up game in Week 1. These aren't meant to be competitive, which is part of the reason why the FBS schools pay for these games to take place.

Last night, West Virginia let UAlbany hang around a little longer than anticipated. The Mountaineers jumped out to a 21-0 lead and appeared to be well on their way to running the Great Danes out of the building. But the WVU secondary struggled mightily playing the ball in the air deep downfield, giving up chunk play after chunk play which kept UAlbany within reach for the first half and some change.

There's nothing wrong with beating an FCS team 49-14. Everyone believes it should be 70-7 when you play teams from the lower level, but unless you're playing Long Island or another program that hasn't had much success, it won't come that easy.

The problem is how you got to the 49-14 score. If the Mountaineers had taken firm control of the game by halftime, Neal Brown would have been able to pull his starters either at the break or shortly thereafter. Giving Nicco Marchiol and the rest of the offensive reserves only a couple of drives in this game is far from ideal. To me, that's as big of a disappointment as the secondary not playing well.

How so?

This is the only game on the schedule where you can get your backups serious playing time. From here on out, if they get in the game, it's because of injury or a lack of execution from the starters.

The number one concern from this one, and it's obvious, is the secondary.

Coming into the season, the coaching staff felt like they had more depth at corner and safety than ever before. In terms of bodies, they aren't wrong. Production and reliability, however? Uh, it's not looking great through two weeks. Myles Burkett threw for 306 yards, marking the most-ever by an FCS quarterback on a West Virginia defense.

That type of performance should upset the fans. It should have folks criticizing the players and coaching staff, particularly defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley. And Lesley, himself, would be the first to admit that what they've put on tape through the first two weeks isn't good enough. But the reality is, it can be fixed.

When you have a position group or area of a unit that is mostly made up of transfers, it's going to take some time for said group to hit its stride. Don't confuse this as me trying to make an excuse for their play, though. It's a legitimate concern and one that has to be righted before they travel up to Acrisure next Saturday.

But let's be optimistic here for a second, because why not?

Garnett Hollis Jr. had a miserable game on Saturday. Downright miserable. But he played well in coverage last week against Penn State and has been rock-solid throughout his entire career. I don't believe he'll be a liability. Ayden Garnes has put some good things on tape and has played the ball in the air fairly well. He's going to be much better as the season goes along. Charlotte transfer Dontez Fagan had the two PI penalties last night, but he made a couple of really good plays in the season-opener against Penn State. This won't be a top-five secondary in the Big 12 by any means, but I also don't think they will be as bad as they were last night.

The one other thing I want to point out is the pass rush or lack thereof. There were several plays in the game where the secondary had the play covered initially but because Burkett had so much time to throw, he was able to keep things alive and deliver a strike. The secondary can only hold things down for so long. Getting to the quarterback more often will eliminate some of those explosive plays from happening.

Jordan Lesley and his assistants have a big week of practice ahead in which they better find some answers in both the pass rush and the secondary or we'll be having a not-so-fun conversation around 7 p.m. on Saturday.

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