WVU Zac Alley figuring out positions in deep linebacker room
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football had a lot of changes on defense. A lot of players graduated and linebacker was no different. Linebackers and defensive leaders Reid Carrico and Chase Wilson are both gone. A few depth pieces, like Ben Bogle, transferred out, too.
With the departures, WVU hit the transfer portal hard and added veterans who have played a lot of football. The Mountaineers picked up Tyler Stolsky from Florida Atlantic, Illinois' Malachi Hood, Jason Hall from Villanova and Isaiah Patterson from UNLV. All four of them played in 12-plus games last season.
There are returners to help out as well. Senior Ben Cutter is back and played in 12 games in 2025, starting in one. Ashton Woods played in six games before suffering a season-ending. He played primarily as a depth piece.
Cutter, being one of the main returners, is the leader of the room, but he's already seen some of the newcomers step up to help out.
"Yeah, Stolsky is one of our leaders on defense," Cutter said. "Really vocal guy. All the new linebackers are coming along very well and competing very hard. We said earlier, it's a competitive room, and they're all great additions to the team."
Redshirt freshman Cam Torbor is filling out, too. He redshirted last season, but defensive coordinator Zac Alley said if the 5-for-5 rule was announced before last season, he would've been used a lot more. Torbor is a big dude at 6-foot-3, 239 pounds, and that's pure muscle.
"We were talking the other day; he can bulk up and play edge if he wanted to," Cutter said. "He's got the athletic ability and everything like that. He's very low body fat percentage. Always like 240-250, it's crazy. He's fast. He moves well."
The physical aspect of Torbor's game is there; now it's just knowing where to be at what time, according to Cutter.
That's a lot of linebackers, and there are only a few of them on the field at the time. In fall camp, Alley is figuring out where each guy will play.
Alley said for the younger players, they kind of just learn one position to start. The older linebackers like Woods, Cutter, Hood, Stolsky and Patterson will shift around between the three spots. The different positions share similarities, but on certain plays the Will blitzes and the Mike doesn't and then others where the Mike does and the Will drops back. Alley leaves the more complicated stuff to the veterans.
Torbor is still looked at as a younger player, even if he has a year in the system. He didn't play much in 2025. Torbor's been working on playing weakside linebacker in camp. He'll play in sub packages as well.
But Alley said it doesn't matter the age. He's going to put the best guys out on the field.
"I'm trying to put the two best players out there," Alley said. "Once somebody went down, you plug and play the next one at the spot that they're comfortable with. You might need somebody to swing to the other one."
It seems WVU almost has too many linebackers. But that's the goal of any coach, according to Rich Rodriguez, and with injuries, you can never have too many of one position. He wants to set the record for playing the most players in a game. But, they all need to be "good enough to win with."
With the veteran experience, WVU is working to have that at linebacker.
"We just have a lot of guys that can play," Cutter said. "We're very deep in the linebacker room. We have so many guys that are actually going to be big-time contributors this year. It's good. It's a lot of competition. It's good. It's making me better having those guys around too. They're great additions to the team."