Listen Closely: Rich Rod Is Telling You What’s Wrong With WVU’s Defense

Rodriguez is not shying away from the root of WVU's defensive problems.

Sep 19, 2026; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez walks on the field before their game against the Virginia Cavaliers at Bank of America Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Imagine it's 2012 and you're watching the West Virginia defense get shredded on a weekly basis, unable to stop a darn thing, and then I come into the room and tell you, "In 14 years, the defense will look worse than this."

You wouldn't believe me, yet here we are.

Over the last two weeks, West Virginia has allowed over 1,100 yards of total offense and 86 points. And going into last week's game, Iowa State was statistically one of the worst offenses in the Big 12. Jaylen Raynor looked the best he's looked in a Cyclone uniform, and they made Aiden Flora look like the next Christian McCaffrey. Big play after big play after big play.

“There were cracks defensively in the first couple of ballgames, and we were still winning, but obviously the Oklahoma State game at home was terrible, and then followed it up with another one, so we’re like, let’s scrape it all down to the studs and let’s see exactly what we got to do to fix it," WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I’ve got good players. I know my coaches are working hard at it, and we’re going to do everything we can to get it right because we can’t play defense like that and beat anybody, let alone people in our league that have good offenses.”

Speaking of good offenses, West Virginia will face one of the better ones the Big 12 has to offer this weekend in Morgantown in Arizona, led by veteran quarterback Noah Fifita, who leads the conference in passing (1,415 yards).

How do the Mountaineers fix their problems?

“Part of it is scheme," Rodriguez said. "When you just say, ‘Hey, line up in a 3-technique or 5-technique, beat the guy,’ that’s one thing. But there are different schemes of being asked to get a little bit thicker on it or there’s sometimes they are going to get blocked and take up the blocks for the backers. I don’t think our interior d-line wasn’t that bad, although I don’t think anybody on our defense played that well. The defensive ends didn’t have a whole lot of disruption, but some of it was where we were putting them at, eating up some blocks. There’s not really one thing that we’re doing well and not one position group that’s playing as well as we’d like, but some of it is us trying to get them freed up in the future.”

Earlier in the day on Monday, I saw a clip from Colorado State head coach Jim Mora Jr.'s press conference talking about how explaining things to the players is very important. Telling them exactly where to be, not just saying, "Do this."

Jim Mora gave some insight earlier this week in the areas where the defense needs to improve 👇

📹@CSURams pic.twitter.com/oDDTpXpMAC

— DNVR Rams (@DNVR_Rams) October 3, 2026

I have a feeling Rich Rod came across this clip because he echoed much of the same things Mora was saying during his radio show last night.

“It’s some simple stuff, like where we’re lining up. Like, they might be lined up in the right spot, but they’re way too deep, or they’re way too shallow, or they’re not in the right leverage. Like if somebody says, ‘Well, move in a little bit.’ Well, for a coach, that’s not the right way to tell them. What’s a little bit? Your little bit and my little bit might be different. You have to clearly define what you mean by everything that you tell them. You can’t just say, ‘Close the gap a little bit.’ Well, what’s that mean? Close the gap three yards? Six yards? Ten yards? And to me, that goes to us as coaches. We got to be more definitive when we’re telling our guys what to do, and then if they can’t do it or won’t do it, it’s a player problem.”

Much of the frustration from Rodriguez stems from being nearly halfway through the season and not having an idea what this defense does well and who can actually play winning football consistently.

“There are things that are fundamentally that shouldn’t happen, no matter what the scheme is. You can say ‘Oh, you ran the wrong coverage,’ or ‘You’re in the wrong blitz,’ or whatever it is, but there is some fundamental stuff that we have to get corrected first. And by this point, we should know what our guys can and can’t do well. A part of coaching is putting your guys in a position to have success, and if they’re not in that position to have success, then you got to call something else. That’s always kind of a constant search in the first part of the year, but we’re five games in, so that search should be over. We’ve had fall camp, and we’ve had five games to figure that out.”