Like Hill and Mahomes, we never saw this West Virginia defense coming

West Virginia defensive end Noble Nwachukwu sacks TCU’s Kenny Hill inches away from the goal line.

 

COMMENTARY

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Tony Gibson’s 3-3-5 defense succeeds primarily on deception, and now we know this for fact: It was deceiving us in mid-September.

We saw cracks and gaps and impending calamity. During back-to-back games when Youngstown State posted 405 yards and BYU awakened for 521, Gibson spewed apologies and languished in doubt. If an FCS offense could flip the field with chunk plays, how could West Virginia stand up against Big 12 surgical strikes? If Nana Kyeremeh’s fingertip provided the final margin of defense at FedEx Field, surely WVU had spent all its late-game magic in one swipe.

The prophecy was fulfilling itself. A program like this couldn’t possibly reconstitute from the talent drain of losing nine defensive starters and four NFL draftees.

The prophecy had it all wrong.

In three games since the 35-32 escape against BYU, West Virginia has held three Big 12 opponents to their season lows in yardage. And wins over Texas Tech and TCU were far more emphatic than stats can describe. These were choke-outs.

(As convincing as the 48-17 win in Lubbock seemed last week, it now registers as preposterous after watching Tech scorch Oklahoma for 854 yards and 59 points Saturday.)

Not even a sudden rash of targeting ejections can poke a hole in Gibson’s defense. When officials DQ’d cornerback Elijah Battle in the second quarter Saturday, linebacker Justin Arndt predicted zero impact on his unit’s intensity.

“Yeah, it’s a rule — you have to deal with it,” he said. “But it’s not going to affect how we play. Not at all. As a defense you want to smack them in the mouth.”

Consider TCU smacked but good. Saturday’s 34-10 final became their most lopsided beating of the Big 12 era and the fifth-worst of Gary Patterson’s 16 seasons. If holding the Frogs 30 points below their average seems hard to fathom, consider that the Mountaineers were missing about 30 players from Tuesday’s practice because of a 24-hour bug that proved to be more than game-week butterflies.

The mass sickness delayed WVU’s practice schedule from the typical Thursday wrap and forced Gibson into a Friday night cram session where “we were still working up until 10 o’clock with the guys.”

Their retention proved sharp enough that Dana Holgorsen went back to high-fiving his own guys and not TCU’s quarterback.

This year’s West Virginia defense played well enough that Dana Holgorsen went back to high-fiving his own guys instead of TCU’s quarterback.

Commissioner Bob Bowlsby flew in for the game craving positive PR after this week’s non-expansion fiasco. West Virginia’s certain climb into the top 10 means useful propaganda for a league whose preseason favorite, Oklahoma, sustained two September losses — losses, I might add, that grew more damaging based on Saturday’s results at SMU and State College.

West Virginia remains among the nine unbeatens in the FBS, its path to 6-0 propped up by a defense nobody saw coming. Almost nobody.

“What we’ve been doing lately is what you expect, what you want to be a part of in recruiting,” said linebacker Al-Rasheed Benton. “When Coach Holgorsen came to my house my senior year in high school, he said ‘You have an opportunity to be a part of something great,’ and I’ve seen that building up.

“I can’t wait to see if we get better and better.”

Remember last month when the defense looked like a huge liability?

That was quite a disguise.





More Sports

High School Sports
Class A Girls Basketball All-State List
Cameron's Ashlynn Van Tassell chosen captain, joined by teammate Kenzie Clutter on firs team.
March 19, 2024 - 1:12 am
High School Sports
Odds and ends: Free-throw shooting, experience major factors in Charleston; shot clock discussion surfaces again
A look back at some key figures and memorable soundbites over the course of two state tournaments that featured 56 games in 10 days.
March 18, 2024 - 5:53 pm
WVU Sports
3 Guys Before The Game - Searching For Mr. Right (Episode 539)
What factors will determine how long the search lasts for WVU's new basketball coach?
March 18, 2024 - 3:05 pm
Sports
Charleston's Osborne, Fairmont State's Anderson first recipients of MetroNews Joe Retton MEC Coaches of the Year
The Golden Eagles men's squad and Falcons' women's team garnered Mountain East Conference regular season and tournament titles, while both squads surpassed the 25-win mark for the season.
March 18, 2024 - 12:00 pm