MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When you mention the number 31 to a member of the West Virginia defense, they know you’re not asking them out for ice cream.
“31 missed tackles,” said defensive end Reese Donahue, who grimaced upon hearing “31” with no further context added. “That’s rough. That’s a big number.”
It’s the number of tackles the Mountaineers whiffed on in their 30-14 loss at Iowa State, and it hasn’t set well with them as they prepare for Baylor this Thursday.
Linebacker David Long described the total as being “ridiculous.”
“I would use that word,” Long said. “We have definitely experienced it before, a few times last season especially. This is a hiccup that we have to fix.”
It doesn’t take Donahue long to think of West Virginia’s poorest tackling performances in his three-year tenure.
“The same way it happened at Texas Tech this year. The same way it happened at Kansas last year,” he said. “We still have a bad taste from last week even though it’s over. It’s time to move on. I think we have a very motivated team. We know who we are and we know what we’re here to do. Personally to me, we’ve covered those bases before and we know how to prevent it now.”
It’s been back to the basics for the West Virginia defense during its open week.
“Every week, we have the same approach studying the game with film, but this week we really put an emphasis on tackling,” Donahue said. “We went pads earlier and we’re back in pads again. Tackling has been an emphasis.”
That said, midseason practices can only get so physical. If you beat yourself up too badly during the week, the opponent will finish the job with ease on game day. So West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen believes that most of the improvement needs to be mental.
“To me, it’s more of a mindset than anything. I’m convinced of that,” Holgorsen said. “You can’t go scrimmage – I guess I could’ve, but that wouldn’t have gone over very well [in the locker room]. You aren’t doing a lot of that this time of year. They limit how much you can tackle [in practice] anyway, so, to me, we know how to tackle. Our guys have been tackling pretty well all year long, so it’s just about the mindset.”