WVU football DC Zac Alley heads back to the drawing board after defensive issues against Oklahoma State
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MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia football's defense had its worst performance of the season against Oklahoma State, which was a major reason the Mountaineers are 3-1 on the year and 0-1 in the Big 12. The Cowboys had 609 yards of total offense and scored 41 points -- the most in both categories this season.
Immediately, the finger is pointed at defensive coordinator Zac Alley. Alley has complete control over the defense, so a majority of the blame is on him. Fans let him hear it, and even had people looking at his contract of $1.25 million, which is one of the higher prices for an assistant coach in college football.
Alley knows he failed and needs to make changes quickly before Iowa State this weekend.
"Looked like everything from that game," Alley said on what areas needed improving. "We weren't prepared the way we needed to be. The plan wasn't very good. Didn't put our guys in a position to win. Back to the drawing board on that. All areas probably need to get better."
It starts with the pass rush because it impacts the secondary's coverage time. The Mountaineers had more than two sacks a game in the first three games, and had three against Virginia's veteran offensive line.
Against Oklahoma State and quarterback Drew Mestemaker, a big priority was making sure he felt uncomfortable. Alley's pass rush didn't have a sack against the Cowboys, allowing Mestemaker to orchestrate cleanly.
"I thought through three games we’ve done a good job," Alley said. "I didn’t think we did a good job of getting to him based on what we were doing. Couple times we had an opportunity to hit him, he got the ball out before we were there... Hard to generate pressure that way with the things we’re getting at to win that game."
Part of the reason the pass rush struggled was that there were open receivers in the secondary, so Mestemaker could hit them quickly, avoiding a sack. The secondary was gashed. Mestemaker threw for 389 yards and three touchdowns. Most of Mestemaker's throws were to open receivers in the middle of the field for big gains.
Alley's looking at personnel changes everywhere, but the secondary is getting some immediate changes.
WVU has three safety positions, and the staff is still trying to figure out who will fill those three spots. At the start of the season, it's hard to figure out who could play where, especially with all the new players. After four games, there's more of a sample size.
"Even though we weren’t good overall, a couple guys played better on Saturday than they have the past couple weeks," Alley said. "You’re trying to figure out how to put the best guys out there and have them be successful."
One option is Georgia transfer nickel/safety JaCorey Thomas, who just became eligible. Alley and Rich Rodriguez both talked about how he's ramping up after four seasons at Georgia and could be in the mix in the safety room. He's fast, physical, and has a lot of experience.
Outside of personnel changes in the secondary, Alley is simplifying the pass coverage. At times, Alley gets a little too creative, which does more self-harm than good. That played into Saturday's torching. Alley said the technique needs to improve as well.
"It's not like when a guy is wide open, we're getting beat in press-man," Alley said. "We take our eyes off our guys in press coverage, and they run a wheel route, that's going to happen to you if you don't train to do your job with great eyes and great technique. That's the number one thing."
The linebackers weren't left out of the areas for improvement. Linebackers are involved in pass coverage and in the pass rush. Along with being the defensive coordinator, Alley handles the linebackers, so he didn't mince words when talking about his room's performance.
"I thought we played horrible on Saturday, but I think there’s some ability there," Alley said.
Alley mentioned redshirt freshman Cam Torbor has been a bright spot in the room and is slowly getting better. Torbor is on the bigger side and had five tackles and half a tackle for loss against Oklahoma State.
The tackling at linebacker and at all levels was poor. Just before the half, Mestemaker threw a pass to Justin Bowick 10 yards shy of the end zone. Bowick shook off two tackles to walk in for the score. WVU had 18 missed tackles on the night.
Alley said technique and the bump up in caliber of competition had a role in all the missed tackles.
"I think part of it was not forcing the ball to be in tight areas where the tackles are just generally easier," Alley said. "Then obviously the competition levels will continue to go up as we get into conference play."
Most of these issues were more obvious in the second half of the game. This isn't new for the defense to break down in the second half. The defense was questioned in the second half against Coastal Carolina to start the season. Quarterback Deuce Bailey led a late comeback that just came up short. The defense had problems with containment that week.
Alley thinks fatigue had a little to do with the breakdowns late in the game. He plans to rotate in more players next week if he can get enough ready to play.
"I’m not as good the first mile of my run versus the 15th mile of my run," Alley said. "I think we got to play and get more guys ready to play, which I think we will this week. We got to continue to strain to finish, to do what it takes to be successful the entire game and not just half of it."
It's not all on Alley, though. Alley can't go out and play. The players need to still go out and execute what he's called. Linebacker Ashton Woods defended Alley's playcalling.
"We weren’t really in the wrong spot last game," Woods said. "We just weren’t executing."
There's a long list of issues for the defense after watching film from the Oklahoma State game -- at all three levels. It's shared blame, though, for the mistakes.
And it'll be a group effort to get the defense back to looking like it had in the first three games for the rest of the season because there are still a lot of games left to play, starting with a physical Iowa State team this week.
"We saw what we did wrong," Woods said. "We know we can fix them. We’re trying to get ready for Iowa State. Very correctable."