MORGANTOWN — For two days, West Virginia defenders probably felt like they were at track practice rather than working on football.
That was the time dedicated in getting WVU’s defense ready for the fast tempo of Texas Tech’s offense.
WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, “Got on to us about consistently running to the ball,” WVU safety Aubrey Burks said. “We worked on lining up fast, and no matter what you did on the last play, you had to move on to the next play. We worked at it. We knew it was going to be a tough task for us.”
It proved to be just that, as Texas Tech finished with 594 total yards in its 48-10 victory.
The Red Raiders ran 103 plays. They finished with 355 yards passing and three touchdowns.
West Virginia’s secondary, meanwhile, was on its heels and seemingly dizzy. A lack of communication played a role in that, almost as if the Mountaineers were talking through plastic cups connected by strings.
Burks, a sophomore in his first season as a starter, finished with 10 tackles, a quarterback sack and one pass breakup. But he also admits there were breakdowns and mistakes that went along with those stats.
“At times we didn’t play hard,” he said. “We didn’t play with a lot of effort. Communication was bad. As far as our communication, that was the most mistakes we made and it led to big-time points on the board.”
WVU (3-4, 1-3 Big 12) went into the game not wanting to get too complex with its scheme in the secondary.
The reason was simple: It would be impossible to go too far into the defensive playbook before Texas Tech simply snapped the ball.
“Our play calls for the week were pretty basic,” Burks said. “We knew we couldn’t call a lot, because of their tempo. We knew we had to get lined up fast.”
Still, mistakes were made. WVU head coach Neal Brown said most of it started up front in terms of not getting lined up properly and not having the right defender set the edge, meaning there was no containment to force Texas Tech players back to the inside.
“We were right down the middle on those perimeter blocks,” Brown said. “We’ve got to pick an edge and then pursue from the (the linebackers).
“What it looked like when Aubrey Burks finally made a play in the fourth quarter, that’s what it should have looked like.”
Experience matters, and there is little of it in WVU’s secondary — “Charles Woods was really the only guy who played in the secondary last year, so everybody else is new to the scheme,” Burks said. — which equals out to WVU allowing 33.7 points per game and giving up 14.3 yards per completion.
“You’re going to make mistakes when you’re out there playing fast,” Burks said. “One thing our coach preaches to us, it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make, as long as you’re playing fast and playing with great effort, that will pay off. We know when we make mistakes, but we have to move forward and just play the next play.”
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