Can WVU Fix Its Defense? Rich Rod Thinks So

The last two weeks have been rough for the Mountaineers defensively, but Rodriguez believes it can be fixed.

West Virginia University head coach Rich Rodriguez | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

West Virginia has a lot of problem-solving to do on the defensive side of the ball, and if they are able to find some answers, not only will they be able to save this season from snowballing in the wrong direction, but they could rip off a few wins and turn this thing around.

After the past two weeks, it looks like this is barreling toward a season-long issue, but WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez believes there are things that can be done to pull this defense out of the cellar.

“I didn’t see anything that we can’t fix. We just got to have the urgency to fix it right away. Coaching-wise, we just got to find what our guys do well and the right position to put them in more consistently. By now we should have a pretty good idea of what our players’ strengths and weaknesses are, so we can plan accordingly as far as what their responsibilities are on the field. It’s frustrating because our guys are all working hard, and we just haven’t had the results and haven’t played the way we need to and the way we should be playing on defense.”

He didn't elaborate too much on what those tweaks are, but did agree that the amount of things that were installed could be causing the defense to be a little hesitant and not play fast and free.

“Anytime you have a simple missed assignment or mistake, you’re like, ‘Golly, how did we mess that up?’ You got to look at the overall picture. Like, ‘How can we just let a guy go free?’ He’s not doing it on purpose, right? So what’s clouding his judgment over his decision-making as a player? You have to dial it back so it clears his mind a little bit, so we don’t make the glaring mistake because they’re thinking too much.”

Defensive coordinator Zac Alley told reporters on Tuesday that he does plan to "dial it back" and simplify things which is an easy choice after how the past two weeks went.

It may not seem like it but the defense has played well in pockets of these past two games. Those pockets just haven't been long enough for it to matter. They may have surrendered a bunch of yardage in the first half to Oklahoma State, but they bowed up in the red zone and made them kick four field goals (not all in the first 30 minutes, of course). And then last week, they opened the game with a couple of stops before things went sideways, and in the third quarter, they turned things around with the Isaiah Patterson interception and another stop to take the lead.

It's not that this defense is incapable of playing winning football; they just haven't done enough of it to this point, and everyone in that building would tell you the same thing.