WVU is Searching for More Answers in the Secondary

The back end of West Virginia's defense is a work in progress.

Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

At times in 2023, West Virginia really struggled to defend the pass. Consensus All-American Beanie Bishop was really the only consistent playmaker in the back end of the defense, while others showed up in spurts here and there.

The staff knew they had to do more than just replace Bishop, they had to lengthen their depth. They accomplished that by grabbing corners Ayden Garnes (Duquesne), Garnett Hollis (Northwestern), Dontez Fagan (Charlotte) and TJ Crandall (Colorado State) out of the portal, along with safeties Kekoura Tarnue (Jacksonville State), and Jaheem Joseph (Northwestern).

How are things coming along with the new-look secondary? Head coach Neal Brown shared an early evaluation on Wednesday.

“We have more able bodies and we’re more athletic. I’ve been really pleased with our two corners that are running with the ones right now. Ayden Garnes, just a really high-level football player. He’s a little thin, but man, he’s competitive. He’s strong for his size. He can run. Really smart. He makes a lot of really good football plays. And then Garnett Hollis (Jr.) is a guy that’s one of the bigger kids we’ve had playing outside for us. He’s got really good length. He can press. Gives us the ability to press probably more than we have. We’ve been moving Aubrey around. He’s playing spear for us, he’s playing high safety. Those have been kind of the mainstays.

"Anthony Wilson has made a really big step for us. Really pleased with where he’s at and now, we need some other guys to step up. We haven’t had the consistency in some of those other guys that we need. Like we needed Jaheem Joseph. We needed KK (Kekoura Tarnue) to come on. We need the Jackson brothers to come on. We need TJ Crandall to come on. I think Key’on Washington has been a pleasant surprise.”

Take it for what it is. Things aren't perfect right now, but no one expected it to be just a handful of days into camp with several new pieces trying to figure out how to mesh together. This could be something that spills over into the first few weeks of the season and if that's the case, West Virginia is going to need to be stout against the run.

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