West Virginia's defense struggled throughout last football season, as the Mountaineers ranked in the bottom percentile of the Big 12 Conference in three different team defense categories.
The Mountaineers finished 14th in scoring defense (31.9 points), passing defense (270.8 yards) and total defense (415.2 yards) in 2024.
The lone team defensive category WVU ranked higher than 14th was rushing defense, with the Mountaineers coming in at No. 7 in the conference, allowing 144.38 yards per game.
West Virginia has welcomed in an entirely new defensive coaching staff, with Zac Alley assuming the role as defensive coordinator.
Alley comes to the Mountain State after one season at Oklahoma. OU finished fifth in the SEC in rushing defense, allowing 115.08 yards, and sixth in total defense, giving up 318.2 yards per game.
The North Carolina native worked for WVU coach Rich Rodriguez at Jacksonville State for two seasons, 2022-23.
The Mountaineer defensive coaching staff, including Alley and Rodriguez, got more insight into what they have on that side of the football during an intrasquad scrimmage.
"[The] defensive staff's doing a good job," Rodriguez said following Saturday's scrimmage. "We gotta make sure we don't forget the fundamental part of it. But, they're doing a lot of stuff. A lot more than you would expect in a first year [and] in [the] first couple weeks. Our plan defensively is a lot of different looks and things. It can be a lot for a young or new guy. But our guys [have] done a good job with it.
"The multiplicity of our defense is really unique, more so than most teams. I would be worried about it and pull back the range if I saw us making a whole bunch of big mental mistakes in practice. But, I don't see that. Every once in a while, somebody might be wrong with a technique, but they've handled it well."
Brand-new faces in defensive groups occupy the WVU roster this season with transfers Jimmori Robinson, Ben Bogle, Darrian Lewis and Eddie Kelly Jr.
Many of the new players on defense have played a lot of football, which, according to Rodriguez, is helpful when trying to teach what they're wanting to do come week one.
"Most of them that come from other places [i.e. other colleges] pick it up a little bit quicker," Alley said. "Guys are able to correlate. They played cover three where they were, [but] it may be a different word or term. But, they can correlate that game experience and some of the things they've done to be the same as what they're doing here. It gives those guys an advantage. There's probably some things they haven't done that is new for them."
Rodriguez echoes Alley's thoughts with guys with years of experience compared to those that are still itching for playing time.
"They're getting coached," Rodriguez said. "Kids are getting coached really well now. If they're coming from Group of Fives or junior colleges, they've gotten coached. They haven't gotten coached in this scheme, and I'm hoping that we can add to whatever they've, fundamentally, hadn't touched a lot. We're gonna add to that because you still gotta be able to tackle, get off a block and have block destruction when you're changing the line of scrimmage.
"There was one fumble [on Saturday]. There probably needs to be more caused by our defense. We gotta go after the ball a little bit. We're getting a lot of pass breakups, which means we're seeing the ball and moving good on the pass aspect of it."
It hasn't been all sunshine and rainbows for the defensive unit because many were and still are trying to grasp the understanding of what needs to be done.
However, Alley especially has started seeing guys understand it a lot more than they would have the first few days of fall camp.
The understanding and development from a day-by-day basis has continued leaving Alley hopeful for the group he has.
"The last couple days the installs have slowed down," Alley said. "We started to rep a lot of the things that had been in. Our executions with the guys who were more expected to play [like the] older guys that are running with the earlier groups has been much improved. Early on in camp, it can be overwhelming sometimes with all the new things. As you get on the back half, it starts to slow down for everybody."
Sixteen players make up the defensive line room, with nine of them being new faces. Three of the nine are freshmen - Wilnerson Telemaque, Taylor Brown and Brandon Caesar.
The top returners for the Mountaineer defensive line include Edward Vesterinen, Hammond Russell IV and Asani Redwood.
Alley mentioned back during spring practice that he wanted to see that unit get better at rushing the quarterback.
He complimented the growth from those guys, especially during scrimmages.
"They've done a better job. Coach Rodriguez does a good job with messing with them [on offense with] all the different ways they run the ball, pass and pass protect in different ways," Alley said. "That does affect their ability to come off the ball a lot of times. I've been pleased the last couple days with the ability of our edge rushers and even interiorly."
