Zac Alley Reveals Why WVU's Defense Couldn't Put Coastal Away

The Mountaineers' defensive coordinator speaks on the team's second half struggles.

West Virginia University defensive coordinator Zac Alley | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

The way the defense played for West Virginia in the final thirty minutes of the season opener against Coastal Carolina was maddening for head coach Rich Rodriguez and defensive coordinator Zac Alley. Deuce Bailey carved them up through the air, but many of those issues weren't due to poor coverage; they stemmed more from the defensive front failing to finish plays.

Keep contain! Keep contain! Keep contain!

That's something Rich Rod screamed nearly 100 times throughout the game, and it was what he was most frustrated about. That is going to be hammered into the defense's mind all week long, throughout practice, and certainly on gameday against UT Martin.

The good thing is, it's not an issue that can't be fixed.

“We had probably three plays, I would say, where we had somebody loafing, that I thought were egregious loafs, and they all came in the second half," Alley said. 'But as a whole, I felt like the effort and the strain and finish to get there that was pretty good. It just comes down to the discipline of continuing to do your job.”

If the effort and physicality are there, you've won half the battle. Strong communication, which will come with more games together as a unit, and playing within the structure of the defense are the other half and are the parts West Virginia failed in during Coastal's attempt at a comeback.

“I think positives are we saw what we could be. Played the first half really well. Had some adversity but were able to overcome in critical moments. I think we forced 40 pressures and had five sacks, and probably should have had 10 more. We counted, and I think we touched him and missed him like 12 times in the backfield, like free runners and whatnot. I felt like we showed what we could do if you play to a standard. I think there was some complacency in the second half. Came out and just stopped doing our job. That’s what got us there in the first place — doing our job well consistently and not beating West Virginia. We beat West Virginia in the second half on defense. We let guys run free, didn’t communicate, didn’t do our job, and that leads to explosive plays. If you cut the explosives down, you’re going to dominate everybody.”

West Virginia only blitzed 17 times and still generated 39 pressures, to be exact. For reference, that's 12 more than they had in any game last year. The fact that they were able to get after the quarterback that often without having to bring numbers is very encouraging. If you keep contain, those big plays don't happen, and Coastal never makes it look interesting.