West Virginia
Handling Harvey no easy task for West Virginia as tackling comes into question – WV MetroNews
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Only six of 133 FBS teams, and two at the Power Conference level, allow more passing yards on average than West Virginia in 2024.
No Power Conference program is surrendering more yards per completion than the 14.19 of the Mountaineers, which ranks ahead of only three FBS teams.
Yet as West Virginia (5-5, 4-3) looks to gain bowl eligibility come 3:30 p.m. Saturday when welcoming Central Florida, the Mountaineer run defense has come into question for good reason.
In last Saturday’s 49-35 loss to Baylor, West Virginia surrendered a season-high 5.38 yards per rush as the Bears gained 183 yards on the ground and 512 in all. Only Penn State (222) and Kansas (247) had rushed for more yards this season against the Mountaineers.
Now comes the top rushing attack among major programs in UCF, which rushes for 262.8 yards on average to trail only Army among FBS teams.
Of UCF’s 240 first downs gained this season, 141 have come on rushing plays. Compare that to a run-heavy Mountaineer offense that’s generated 223 total first downs and 109 by way of rushing.
Leading the way for one of the more productive rushing attacks in all of college football is fifth-year tailback RJ Harvey, the nation’s third-leading rusher with 1,328 yards and 19 touchdowns on 196 attempts.
“You have to keep great edges on the defense,” WVU defensive coordinator Jeff Koonz said. “You have to keep technique all 11 guys across the board. If you’re the back side guy pursuing the ball, you have to keep technique and keep your shoulders square. He’s a threat to go anywhere at anytime. He understands the blocking and their scheme. It’s a great challenge for us because it all bases off the inside zone scheme that we just saw against Baylor.”
Another productive outing in Morgantown would allow Harvey to surpass his rushing total of 1,416 yards from last season, when the Orlando native scored 16 times on the ground.
Harvey has faced West Virginia once before, and although the Mountaineers were victorious 41-28 in Orlando last season, the tailback managed 100 yards on 14 carries along with four receptions for 30 yards.
At 5-foot-9 and 208 pounds, Harvey has a combination of power and patience that helps to make him a tough tackle.
“His ability to break tackles and once he gets past the defensive line and linebackers, he can get striking,” said WVU defensive lineman T.J. Jackson, the team leader in sacks and tackles for loss with 5.5 and 12, respectively. “He’s really fast.”
Harvey has rushed for at least 75 yards in every game this season, 126-plus yards on seven occasions and 127 or more yards in four straight contests, during which time he’s totaled 634 yards and 10 touchdowns on 88 carries.
“The thing that sticks out to me is he breaks tackles,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “He does a really good on the inside zone play of getting the safeties and everybody to kind of bottle up and he jump cuts it outside and outruns them. That’s going to be the key. The key is to contain him and not let him get on the perimeter for explosives.”
Brown has been critical of the Mountaineers’ tackling in each of their last two contests since Koonz has took over as defensive coordinator after the head coach opted for a change three weeks ago today when previous defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley was dismissed.
“We didn’t tackle as well as we needed to at Cincinnati. We tackled really poorly in the first half against Baylor. It was bad,” Brown said. “If we’re going to have the ability to contain their run game, then we’re going to have to tackle at a much higher level.”
WVU has allowed a staggering 948 yards in those two games, though in the first one at Cincinnati, the Mountaineers forced a season-high three takeaways and two amounted to defensive touchdowns in a 31-24 victory.
Baylor then scored touchdowns on five of its six first-half possessions and twice more in the fourth quarter to seal a 49-35 victory and prevent the Mountaineers from putting together consecutive encouraging efforts.
“We have to have guys attack the ball with leverage,” Koonz said. “We have to understand our leverage. In week 10, you’re probably tired of hearing that. Every coverage and front has a leverage aspect to it. If I’m playing my position and I get to the ball-carrier, I have to attack that ball-carrier with certain leverage, so that if I do miss the tackle, someone else should be close if we’re playing with the effort we’re supposed to be.”
The first on-the-field staff for new West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez is starting to come together and thus far it’s been a mix of experience and familiarity.
Rodriguez has a salary pool of at least $5 million for his on the field assistants in every year of his five-year contract and while none of the hires have been made official yet we’re starting to get an idea of what some of the group is going to look like due to various reports.
The biggest piece of the puzzle was luring co-defensive coordinator Zac Alley from Oklahoma after only one season to reunite with Rodriguez in Morgantown. The pair worked together for two years at Jacksonville State and gives the Mountaineers a high quality coordinator on that side of the ball.
Alley, who called the Sooners defensive players this past season had the unit ranked 21st in total defense this past season allowing 318.2 yards per game and was tied for 18th in yards per play allowed at just 4.87. The Sooners were ranked 34th in scoring defense permitting just 21.58 points per contest during the regular season.
He had similar success during his time working under Rodriguez at Jacksonville State as the Gamecocks defense ranked 33rd in scoring defense at 21.2 points per game and 43rd in total defense helping to lead the Gamecocks to a 9-4 overall record in 2023. His unit had success in holding opponents to 2.8 yards per rush, or fourth nationally, was ranked eighth in tackles for loss with 414 and ninth in turnovers gained with 25.
Alley was making over $900,000 with a three-year contract with the Sooners, so there is obviously going to be quite the financial commitment here from West Virginia and Rodriguez.
While there have yet to be any designated assignments with press releases by the university, Rodriguez is expected to retain former offensive coordinator Chad Scott and tight ends coach Blaine Stewart. Those two combined were already under contract for $950,000 until 2026 with the program.
In terms of potential new hires, Rodriguez is expected to bring in a number of other assistants from his time at Jacksonville State including defensive line coach William Green, tight ends coach Michael Nysewander and wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett.
All three of those are young coaches with Garrett working under Rodriguez as a graduate assistant at Louisiana-Monroe and then joined the coaching staff in Jacksonville. He is expected to coach the wide receivers. Meanwhile, Nysewander was in his second season with the Gamecocks after time on the Mississippi coaching staff as an analyst. Finally, Green spent three seasons as the defensive line coach under Rodriguez at Jacksonville State after previously working at Louisiana-Monroe.
Outside of that net, Rodriguez is expected to bring in some veterans that have worked with him in the past in former Wisconsin offensive line coach Jack Bicknell Jr. on offense and former West Virginia defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel on the defensive side.
Aside from Wisconsin, Bicknell previously coached offensive lines Boston College, Mississippi, Auburn and Louisville during that time. He was on the same staff as Rodriguez at Mississippi in 2019.
Bicknell also has spent time at the NFL level as the assistant offensive line coach with New York Giants (2009-11), offensive line coach with the Kansas City Chiefs (2012), offensive line coach with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2013) and assistant offensive line coach with the Miami Dolphins (2014-17).
Casteel needs no introduction for West Virginia fans as he was the coordinator on the defensive side of the ball from 2002-11 after being brought to Morgantown by Rodriguez on his initial staff in 2001. Casteel, who hasn’t been assigned any specific role on the staff, has over 30 years of coaching experience and 27 as a defensive coordinator at multiple stops including time at Arizona and Nevada.
He had last served as a defensive analyst with the Mountaineers when he returned to the program in 2020 and remained there until 2023.
That’s a good mixture of both youth and experience as well as ties to either Rodriguez himself or the West Virginia football program at large. Clearly at this stage we don’t know all of the roles that some of this group of coaches will ultimately fill, but the makings of the initial staff is coming together.
As far as the rest of the staff, sources have indicated that Louisiana Tech defensive coordinator Jeremiah Johnson is a name that is expected to make the move to Morgantown as well in an unspecified role. That would be quite the pull as well if that falls in place as well as a few others.
Still, while the pieces of the puzzle aren’t quite fit together yet, we’re getting an idea of what the coaching staff under Rodriguez could look like in several different areas at the start of his second tenure in Morgantown.
West Virginia
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Defensive coordinator Zac Alley leaving Oklahoma to take the same job at West Virginia seems on its surface like a step down. The mountains of Morgantown are pretty and all, but you don’t ditch a program like Oklahoma for the West Virginias of the world.
But once you get past the initial shock value, Alley’s decision isn’t as dubious as it seems.
At West Virginia, Alley will reunite with head coach Rich Rodriguez, whom Alley worked with at both Louisiana-Monroe and Jacksonville State. When Jacksonville State hired Rodriguez as head coach, Rodriguez hired Alley as his defensive coordinator.
But Alley also worked with Brent Venables. For seven years at Clemson and one at Oklahoma. Alley’s relationship with Venables goes a lot deeper than his ties with Rodriguez.
One big difference though. Under an offensive-minded coach like Rodriguez at West Virginia, Alley will presumably have full control of the defense. That’s something Alley never would’ve had at Oklahoma. Not with the defensive-obsessed Venables in charge.
At OU, Alley was always going to exist in Venables’ shadow. Heck, he even talked like Venables. OU’s defense drastically improved this season, in what was Alley’s first as defensive coordinator, jumping from 79th in total defense in 2023 to 19th this season.
All of us, right or not, instinctively credit Venables for OU’s defensive transformation.
At West Virginia, Alley will get all the credit or all the blame.
And then there’s the job stability.
Rodriguez, embarking on his second stint at West Virginia, is entering Year 1 of a five-year contract. He’s going to get at least, what, three years at his new-old job?
Venables, meanwhile, is entering 2025 on the hot seat. He’s had a losing season in two of his three years at OU. He’s 22-17 overall and 12-14 in conference play.
Venables could certainly turn things around, but I’d bet on Rodriguez outlasting Venables in their respective roles.
OU is another 6-7 record away from likely cleaning house.
Rather than risking going down with the ship, the 30-year-old Alley is starting anew in calmer waters.
Joe Mussatto is a sports columnist for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Joe? Email him at jmussatto@oklahoman.com. Support Joe’s work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
KenPom predicts how West Virginia will fare in Big 12 play
West Virginia has closed out the non-conference portion of their schedule and is now onto Big 12 play.
KenPomery, an advanced statistical website for college basketball, uses efficiency to measure how good a team is. KenPom also predicts how the Mountaineers will do in Big 12 play and the percentage chance they give WVU to win each game.
Overall, KenPom projects West Virginia to go 9-11 in conference play, having them finish the regular season with an 18-13 record. They also give WVU at least a 40 percent chance to win 12 of their 20 games against Big 12 opponents.
December/January
The first month of conference play shapes up to be the hardest for the Mountaineers. Out of the 11 losses KenPom projects, five of them come in the first month of conference play. Two games against Houston, a trip to Kansas, and a home date against Iowa State make the first month of the year very challenging.
There are plenty of close games as KenPom gives WVU a 51 percent chance to beat Arizona at home, a 48 percent chance to beat Colorado on the road, and then a 54 percent chance to beat Kansas State on the road.
In WVU’s four projected wins, their average margin of victory is 4.3 points. In their five projected losses, the average margin of defeat is 6.6 points.
February
In February, West Virginia has eight games, and KenPom projects the Mountaineers going 4-4 during the month.
Their wins include home dates against Utah, BYU, Cincinnati, and TCU. All their projected losses that month come on the road.
The average margin of victory in the month is 4.8 points, while the average margin of defeat is 6.5 points. During February, West Virginia has a three-game stretch, which includes a road game against Baylor (ranked 18th by KenPom), a home date against Cincinnati (ranked 21st), and then a trip back to Texas to face Texas Tech (ranked 13th). This also all comes in a week, spanning from Feb. 15-22.
March
The month of March is a quick three-game stretch before the Big 12 Tournament begins. However, two of the games take place in the state of Utah, as WVU faces BYU and Utah, both on the road.
The Mountaineers are projected to lose both games, with an average margin of defeat of 3.5 points. Their win over UCF, they’re projected to win by eight points.
Overall
Out of WVU’s 10 home games, they are projected to go 8-2, with the losses coming to Iowa State (ranked fifth) and Houston (ranked fourth).
Out of WVU’s 10 away games, they are projected to go 1-9, with the lone win coming on the road against Kansas State (ranked 90th).
All Big 12 teams are ranked 104th or better, and out of the 16 teams, 14 are ranked inside the top 76. Nine teams are ranked inside the top 48, and WVU’s current ranking of 48th by KenPom is ranked ninth in the league.
The Big 12’s overall rating is +17.19, according to KenPom. That ranks third out of all conferences as the SEC (+20.10) is first, and the Big Ten (+17.39) is second.
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