Zac Alley Shares Encouraging Update on WVU Defense Ahead of Season Opener

The Mountaineer defensive coordinator is liking what he's seeing.

West Virginia University Defensive Coordinator Zac Alley | West Virginia University quarterback Max Anderson

Things have been pretty quiet when it comes to how the defensive side of the football is coming along for the Mountaineers this fall camp. We've heard a lot about the progression of the offense and a handful of guys on Zac Alley's unit, but with the season just thirteen days out, there is still a lot of uncertainty about how good/bad they will be this fall.

On Saturday, the football team posted a quick on-field interview with Alley, in which he shared his thoughts on how his group looks.

“I think we have a much better understanding of what we’re doing and why we are doing it than we did when we started fall camp," Alley said. "I think you have seen guys…they are more comfortable in the system, understand what we’re trying to do. That showed up the last couple of days where we’ve made some smart plays and done things you expect of a high-level, productive back end and secondary as well.”

Although much of the defense is new, they do have more returning pieces than the offense. Guys like DL Nate Gabriel, DL Corey McIntyre Jr., LB Ben Cutter, LB Ashton Woods, and CBs Nick Taylor, ChaMarryus Bomar, and Keyshawn Robinson are back, plus N/S Geimere Latimer is no stranger to the scheme, having played in it at Jacksonville State. Not to mention, several underclassmen may not have seen the field yet, but are entering their second year in the defense, too. Because of it, the defense has been able to put more in throughout camp.

"We're probably doing more stuff, and I've been around Zac a bunch of time," head coach Rich Rodriguez said earlier this week. "I think we're doing more stuff defensively than we ever have. And things that aren't working or things that our guys can't grasp, he won't put it in there. Most of it has been things we'll need all year, and he's got some stuff in for first game, but we do a whole lot. He's always done a whole lot. He's demanding of our guys from a schematic, understanding football standpoint. You'd like to just play this one front, one blitz, one coverage and be good enough to win games that way, but I don't know if anybody can do that nowadays."

The biggest concern...

The secondary gets a lot of attention and rightfully so with all of the question marks at corner, but I'm going with the defensive line. They aren't incredibly deep and don't have great size. Teams who like to run the ball and have a physical offensive line could be problematic.