MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning has made it clear over the first half of the season that one thing he does not tolerate is when his defenders don’t do their specific jobs.
After a poor second half Saturday against Iowa State, the leash may be getting shorter and shorter on some of the upperclassmen on defense, especially with the way several freshmen have played out of necessity.
“We probably need to have more new guys because we’ve got some older guys who can’t do the little things right,” Koenning said. Iowa State “converted two under routes on third down when we were supposed to have two guys cover the under route. They’re too busy staring at the quarterback instead of doing what they’re supposed to do, and they’re older guys. Maybe we need more younger guys, I don’t know, but what I do know is we got our butts handed to us in the second half.”
The Mountaineers (3-3, 1-2) have been forced to play true freshmen in critical situations late, especially in the secondary. Starting cornerback Keith Washington was out with a muscle injury and the other starting corner, Hakeem Bailey, was ejected for targeting in the second half. Each were replaced with true freshmen in Nicktroy Fortune and Tae Mayo.
WVU was outscored 24-0 in the second half, including 17 fourth-quarter points for the Cyclones. The Mountaineers were also outgained 239 to 44 in the second half, while ISU had the ball nearly 12 minutes longer in time of possession.
“The margin is being able to consistently do things right,” Koenning said. “If you do things right a few times, you should be able to do things right all the time, and that’s the frustrating thing right now — we can’t, at all positions. They were way better than us in the second half, 250 yards better than us in the second half.”
Koenning said when the Iowa State offense shifted, a lot of his players decided not to make adjustments, which resulted in third- and fourth-down conversions all day for the Cyclones. They were 6 of 14 on third down and 3 of 3 on fourth.
While he wouldn’t mention the player by name, wanting to keep it “in house,” Koenning said someone on defense finally started to call out his teammates for not doing what they’re supposed to do. Working together within is important for a defensive turnaround because Koenning believes players can turn coaches off if they’re consistently getting an ear full.
“Just like any relationship, we need to help our players to lead, because if we don’t get the players to lead from within, we’re just going to be us fighting them all the time,” he said. “If you keep hammering them all the time, they’re eventually going to shut you off. We’re not going to beat our guys down, but we have to find a way to get them to play the way they’re capable of.”
It doesn’t get any easier this week as WVU hits the road to play the No. 1 offense in the country at Oklahoma. Koenning knows it will be a tough matchup, but he wants to see responsibilities fulfilled. He’s seen it in flashes all season, but there hasn’t been any consistency.
“If you take 2/3 of the Kansas game, take the second half against Missouri, take the second half and first quarter against N.C. State, take the first and third quarters last week against Texas, take the first half in this game. … we’re capable, plenty capable,” Koenning said. “But we’re either very high or really low, and there’s no in between. Until we can get some depth where we can challenge some of these guys, we’ve gotta figure out about this drop-off we’re having.”
