A quick glance at the injury list for WVU prior to Saturday’s home game against Texas and your first thought is likely, “What in the world is defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley going to do?”
Cornerback Nicktroy Fortune: Out. Cornerback Charles Woods: Out. Linebacker Exree Loe: Out. Linebacker Lance Dixon: Out.
The depth at linebacker was a major concern without the two-deep at the Will position, and there isn’t much a team can do without cornerback depth, someone has to line up and play there.
But Lesley and head coach Neal Brown needed to do something with an explosive Longhorns offense coming to town, so the decision was to scheme out the Will linebacker as much as possible.
For most of the game, the Mountaineers ran a dime package, which essentially puts two defensive backs on the field instead of two linebackers. Safety Scottie Young played more of a hybrid safety/linebacker spot, and true freshman Saint McLeod earned his first spot at Spear safety.
The reason was simple: Without star running back Bijan Robinson, make Texas’ backup running backs beat you. WVU knew it was going to give up yards in the running game, but it wanted to keep the ball in front of Mountaineers defenders and limit the explosive plays Longhorns’ head coach Steve Sarkisian is known for.
“They’ve got guys who can run — (Marcus) Washington and (Xavier) Worthy are special, and then [Keilan Robinson] has electric speed,” Brown said. “Our whole plan was to drop eight probably more than we have this season, and we were intentional about keeping the ball in front of us. We knew they were going to be able to run the ball some, alright? They hit a couple of explosive plays on us, one for a touchdown, but we felt like if we could keep it in front of us, then we’d have a chance.”
Texas did finish with 203 yards on the ground with an impressive 7.3 yards per carry average, but outside of a 52-yard touchdown pass from Hudson Card to Worthy, the Longhorns got next to nothing in the passing game.
Card and Casey Thompson rotated at quarterback and finished completing less than 50% of their passes (14 of 30) for 152 yards. The Longhorns’ inability to hit downfield passes late solidified the Mountaineers’ 31-23 win.
“We knew we’d be able to contain the other backs (outside of Bijan Robinson) for them, our game plan coming in was to give up the run a little bit more and drop eight and protect the pass,” safety Sean Mahone said. “We knew they had good receivers, so we decided to give up the run a little bit.
“The biggest thing was knowing they’re were going to break runs and make plays, so we had to rally tackle and have pursuit to the ball. We can’t always stop the run, so get 11 hats to the ball and we’ll be able to stop them.”
Josh Chandler-Semedo, playing his last home game at Milan Puskar Stadium, was on an island by himself for most of the game, playing in the middle of the field as the only linebacker. For him, though, the change in scheme didn’t change his responsibilities.
“Our defense is really a 4-1-6 when we play with one linebacker in the box,” Chander-Semedo said. “Our shell is our shell no matter what we run. The Bandit moves around which can change if we’re a 3-2-6 or a 3-3-5, so the calls really don’t change.”
No matter how ugly it looked at times, especially in the second and third quarters, giving up big chunks in the running game was part of the game plan as long as Texas couldn’t convert in the passing game.
It kept the Mountaineers’ bowl hopes alive with one week left.
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