West Virginia simply does not have the secondary to compete this season. There’s no other way to say it.
As bad as WVU’s defense has been in the past, it’s never been like this. The Mountaineers can’t defend even the simplest of downfield passes this season. Penn State and Albany got some chunk plays against the Mountaineers, but Pitt took full advantage of it in a heartbreaking 38-34 loss on Saturday.
The Panthers pretty much abandoned any idea of running a normal offense to just take shots down the field because WVU simply could not defend it.
Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein completed 21 passes for 301 yards, averaging 14.3 yards per completion. That’s actually the Mountaineers’ best mark of the season as PSU’s Drew Allar averaged 19.6 yards per completion and Albany’s Myles Burkett averaged 17.
“Let’s just say what it is, we have not covered the pass very good,” WVU coach Neal Brown said. “There’s nothing I can say, it is what it is.
“When it happens three weeks in a row, it is what it is. We’ve got to make some changes and some corrections.”
The Panthers had nine passing plays of 15 or more yards with two going for 40 yards, including the 40-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that gave Pitt late life.
It was a situation where all WVU had to do was not let a receiver get behind the defense and not only did a receiver get behind them, the Mountaineers were called for holding on the play and still gave up the score.
Then, leading by three points with two minutes to play, WVU gave up completions of 17 and 23 as the Panthers went right down the field and scored the game-winning touchdown.
WVU also gave up 19 yards on a second-and-14, 21 yards on a second-and-17 and 22 yards on a second-and-23.
“We just didn’t make plays,” Brown said. “They made plays and we did not make plays on the ball.”
West Virginia also doesn’t have an interception yet this season despite facing 85 pass attempts.
WVU tried to rebuild the secondary through the transfer portal this offseason and none of the players have made an impact yet. Cornerbacks Garnett Hollis, Ayden Garnes and Dontez Fagan have all had terrible moments through three games — Fagan was the culprit who held on the 40-yard touchdown.
West Virginia said repeatedly this offseason that the goal in 2024 was to win a Big 12 championship, but this team won’t win anything with a secondary that can’t muster any resistance while trying to protect a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead.
The backup options are Colorado State transfer TJ Crandall, who hasn’t played much so far, and Jacolby Spells, who has seemingly not taken a step forward in his junior season.
“You are what you are, our personnel is our personnel,” Brown said. “We’ve got to play them better, they’ve got to play better and we’ve got to coach them better. It’s not like we’ve got people waiting in the bullpen.”
Beyond those options, WVU would be looking at true and redshirt freshmen who have never seen the field. It can’t get much worse at this point, however, so rolling out new recruits wouldn’t be a bad idea.
No team that’s actually going to contend for a conference championship should be reduced to trying out unproven first- and second-year players in the first month of the season. But that’s where the Mountaineers are at three games into the year and they’ll stay here unless something changes quickly.
