West Virginia

Brown, Lesley aware of what went wrong defensively, but say physicality wasn't an issue – WV MetroNews

Published

2 years ago

September 2, 2024

Brown, Lesley aware of what went wrong defensively, but say physicality wasn't an issue – WV MetroNews

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia head coach Neal Brown and defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley share belief that effort and physicality weren’t the cause of most problems the Mountaineer defense endured during Saturday’s 34-12 season-opening loss to No. 8 Penn State.

But as the team looks to move forward ahead of Saturday’s 6 p.m. contest against Albany, both Brown and Lesley made it clear the unit was nowhere near good enough in what was largely an all-around forgettable Week 1 showing.

“Defensively, our issues were not because they knocked us off the ball. That wasn’t the case,” Brown said. “We did not do a good enough job in any of our run games. We did a really poor job in our pass lanes, because we were too fast. When we were running d-line games on passing downs, we were too fast and left big gaps. I haven’t calculated the scramble yards, but it’s quite a bit — probably 50 or more. We over-pursued the ball in outside zone.

“It’s about simplifying what we’re trying to do in the run game and making sure our cutback lanes are in better spots. I didn’t have an issue with our physicality, but our execution was not very good. They out-gapped us on a couple of unbalanced plays.”

Brown singled out linebacker Josiah Trotter and safeties Anthony Wilson and Jaheem Joseph for strong individual efforts in the setback. West Virginia forced an early turnover when defensive lineman TJ Jackson recovered a Drew Allar fumble. That was the Nittany Lions’ only turnover and about all that went wrong for Allar, who was otherwise efficient and completed 11-of-17 passes for 216 yards with three touchdowns.

“We weren’t consistent enough,” Joseph said. “We had spurts in the game when we executed and spurts when we didn’t, and it showed with a lot of explosive plays.”

Allar guided a unit that finished with 457 total yards and 409 over the final three quarters when it amassed all of its point production. The Mountaineers did not record a sack or quarterback hurry.

“His completion percentage was not very good with pressure. Now they know that, too, and there’s a lot of seven-man protection,” Brown said. “Pick your poison. If they are going to seven-man protect, you have to bring a lot of people, and if you do, you’re leaving yourself in man coverage. You have to pick and choose. He played very well, but he had space. There was never a time in the game where he was uncomfortable and that’s on us.”

PSU’s success on first down was pivotal as the Nittany Lions totaled 224 yards on 28 first down plays. Each of Penn State’s first four touchdowns, which covered a total of 128 yards, came on first down.

“The easy answer is pressure. The hard part of pressure against what we know they like to do and what that guy has always done is that’s when he’s always making you adjust,” Lesley said. “You can pressure yourself into a touchdown play on first downs if you’re not careful. We had a couple on first downs where we sent pressure and we were very effective at it.

“We saw two personnels we guessed we would see and as you’re adjusting through that, you’re staying pretty basic to figure out where are they going with this and what are they trying to do. Some of those first down yardage plays came in that scenario. When we settled in, I thought we were fine.”

All but 49 of PSU’s 22 rushing yards came over the final two quarters following a 2 hour and 19 minute weather delay at halftime. The Nittany Lions also scored in the final seconds of the first half and on the opening possession of the second half to turn what had been a competitive 13-6 game into a three touchdown margin.

“We talk about effort, aggression and toughness and I didn’t see a lack of any of those things. That aggression sometimes can bite you and against good football teams, when you make those mistakes, they find them,” Lesley said. “They’re mistakes that are very fixable. I hate that we have to fix them in that kind of atmosphere and team in Week 1, but it is what it is. The last thing I told them before we left the hotel is we don’t need to do anybody to do anything special. We just need you to do your job. That’s tough in that kind of environment.”

Ultimately, being out of position on several key plays and allowing Allar to settle in and develop rhythm proved problematic for a defense that surrendered nearly 20 yards per completion and 7.6 yards per play.

“From a team perspective, sometimes stats don’t tell the story but in this game, they do,” Brown said. “Rushing, we averaged 2.7 and they were 5.3. They rushed for 222 and we rushed for 85. The big reason why is negative plays — something you can’t versus those guys and snaps caused ours. Turnover margin is 3-1. The middle 8 [minutes] really is where the game was decided — 14-3 them.

“Our rush defense was not good. We gave up explosive runs and a lot of quarterback scrambles. The explosives killed us and the quarterback run game. We generated zero pressure. He’s struggled with pressure and we didn’t generate any. That was disappointing. We struggled when they went unbalanced and tempo’d us, so I’m sure we’ll see that again.”

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West Virginia

West Virginia man accused of threatening Trump, ICE agents indicted

Published

6 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

West Virginia man accused of threatening Trump, ICE agents indicted

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. (WCHS) — A West Virginia man accused of threatening to attack President Donald Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement workers was federally indicted this week.

Cody Lee Smith, 20, of Clarksburg was indicted on two counts of threats to murder the president, one count of influencing and retaliating against federal officials by threat of murder and one count of influencing a federal official by threat of murder, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia.

Smith is accused of making a series of public posts on Instagram encouraging and threatening the murder of Trump, those who support him, Israelis and “all government officials,” the news release said.

The indictment also alleges that Smith sent a direct message via Instagram to Donald J. Trump, Jr., stating he would kill his father by cutting his “jugular.”

In a phone call with the ICE tip line, Smith also threatened to kill ICE agents in Clarksburg and employees staffing the tip line.

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Smith faces up to 5 years for each of the presidential threat charges and faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the remaining counts.

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West Virginia

West Virginia falls flat in 65-63 loss to Kansas State – WV MetroNews

Published

18 hours ago

March 4, 2026

Press Room

West Virginia falls flat in 65-63 loss to Kansas State – WV MetroNews

West Virginia has said the right things about the need to capitalize on opportunities.

The Mountaineers aren’t following through when they come about.

The latest example came Tuesday night at Kansas State, which scored 21 unanswered points in the second half before holding off a furious West Virginia charge for a 65-53 victory at Bramlage Coliseum.

“The level of urgency and desire to win a game with so much on it wasn’t where it needed to be,” West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge said on postgame radio.

The Wildcats (12-18, 3-14) played without leading scorer PJ Haggerty, a surprise scratch with an undisclosed injury.

Although WVU (17-13, 8-9) defeated Kansas State 59-54 with Haggerty in the lineup during a January matchup in Morgantown, the Mountaineers were unable to capitalize on his absence in the rematch and fell to 1-4 in their last five games.

Both teams were dismal offensively in the opening half, which ended with West Virginia leading, 26-23.

The Mountaineers got 10 points apiece from reserve forwards Chance Moore and DJ Thomas, helping the visitors to at least somewhat overcome a starting lineup that scored six points on 3-for-15 shooting over the first 20 minutes.

“When you’re playing a team that is a little down and out, you can’t give them life and can’t give them hope,” Hodge said. “We had so many opportunities in the first half and at the beginning of the game to make some plays and entice a team that’s been struggling to maybe keep struggling.”

After a scoreless first half, WVU guard Honor Huff made his 100th three-pointer this season with 18:33 to play, allowing the Mountaineers to lead 31-27.

West Virginia went the next 8-plus minutes without a point, and Wildcats took control during that stretch.

Khamari McGriff scored the Wildcats’ first four points of the extended 21-0 spurt and accounted for four buckets and eight of the first 15 points during that time.

A jumper from CJ Jones with 10:53 remaining left the home team with a 48-31 advantage, before Thomas scored from close range to end his team’s extended drought at the 10:27 mark.

“I’m aware of our shortcomings and I understand when you’re deficient in some areas, your margin for error to win is razor thin,” Hodge said. “I’m disappointed with what was at stake, we got beat to loose balls. Would it have been nice to make more layups and threes? Of course. But when those things aren’t happening, you better do those other things.”

KSU had separate 19-point leads, the latter of which came at 57-38 when McGriff made two free throws with 7:29 to play.

WVU then increased its aggressiveness offensively and reeled off the next 11 points, while the Wildcats began to play tentative while in possession.

A three-pointer from K-State’s Nate Johnson left the Wildcats with a 60-49 lead with 3:48 left, but the Mountaineers continued to battle and trailed by six when Chance Moore scored in the paint at the 1:24 mark.

Moore’s next basket made it a five-point game, and after a Johnson turnover, Huff made two free throws to bring WVU to within 61-58 with 48 seconds left.

Another KSU turnover gave the visitors the ball back, but after Moore missed a shot that the Mountaineers rebounded, Huff committed a costly turnover.

Johnson made two free throws with 17 seconds left, and McGriff added two more with 7 seconds remaining before Huff made a trey at the buzzer.

Moore led WVU with 18 points and made 6-of-7 shots, but again struggled on free throws, finishing 5 for 9. WVU hurts its cause at the charity stripe and made only 9-of-16 attempts.

Brenen Lorient was the Mountaineers’ second-leading scorer with 14 second-half points, while Thomas followed with 12 and Huff added 11 on 3-for-11 shooting.

Treysen Eaglestaff led all players with 11 rebounds in defeat, but made only 3-of-12 shots in a six-point showing.

McGriff led KSU with 18 points and added seven rebounds.

Johnson finished with 16 points and nine boards.

WVU had nine of its 13 turnovers in the second half.

“Nine turnovers in the second half creates more busted floors, more cross match opportunities and through that, it makes you vulnerable for paint touch opportunities,” Hodge said.

K-State played under the guidance of interim head coach Matthew Driscoll. Driscoll replaced Jerome Tang, who was fired in between the team’s first and second matchups with West Virginia this season.

“Sometimes in life you get what you deserve,” Hodge said, “and we deserved to lose tonight.”

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West Virginia

Nitro completes utility deal with West Virginia American Water – WV MetroNews

Published

1 day ago

March 3, 2026

Press Room

Nitro completes utility deal with West Virginia American Water – WV MetroNews

Photo: Dave Casebolt, left, signed an agreement Tuesday with West Virginia American Water Company President Scott Wyman (City of Nitro)

NITRO, W.Va. — It’s a done deal.

Nitro Mayor Dave Casebolt signed an agreement Tuesday with West Virginia American Water Company President Scott Wyman completing the sale of the Nitro Regional Wastewater Utility including the sewer plant for $20 million.

The water utility will now own and operate the city’s water and wastewater systems. The state Public Service Commission recently approved the deal.

Casebolt said it’s good to get the long-talked-about agreement signed. He said the city can’t afford to make the improvements required at the sewer plant.

“We’re looking at needing between 40 and 50 million dollars of upgrades to our system and expecting our four-thousand customer base to try to offset those costs is not even practical,” Casebolt said.

Casebolt said sewer bills are going to go up but he said they were going to go up regardless. He said the city was facing increasing rates by as much as 50 percent.

West Virgina American is planning $42 million in upgrades to the sewer system over the next five years, Casebolt said.

“It’s a much-need investment and actually allow the system to handle rainwater much better where it’s not backing up into people’s homes,” Casebolt said.

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