MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As a result of the yardage given up through two games, there were concerns regarding West Virginia’s defense before the Mountaineers’ matchup against then-No. 25 Virginia last Saturday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.
Yet in the first of 10 consecutive contests against power conference opponents over what remains of the 2026 season, there was noticeable improvement from the unit, which allowed touchdowns on the Cavaliers’ first and final series, and otherwise held Virginia scoreless on nine of 11 possessions.
“We showed our potential and when we do our job and play well what we can be and how we can play,” WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “I still didn’t think we played to the standard of where we want to be. The last drive really made me mad. Just not doing our job and you’re going to come down to critical moments in big games where you’re going to have to stop them on that series. We’re calling things that we’ve done since the first day of fall camp and we’re just making stuff up, so I didn’t like that. We have some improvement to make from that standpoint, so in my mind, there’s a lot of things left to do to be where we want to be as a defense, but improving every time.”
The Mountaineers allowed 354 total yards and 5.1 yards per play, while forcing six punts and a turnover on downs in a contest that did not feature a turnover.
Virginia managed 136 total yards in the first quarter, all but 23 of which came on the ground. From that point forward, the Cavaliers were held to 218 yards over 50 plays and a mere 44 rushing yards on 23 attempts.
None of Virginia’s six possessions that ended with a punt managed more than 19 yards or five plays.
“They had a great plan early on and kind of just stayed on the ball to wait and see where we were going to go and tried to watch us that way and run it,” Alley said. “We kind of made some adjustments after that second series and said why don’t we play more vertical, try to keep guys in gaps and that helped shut the run game down. We had a couple just foolish, poor fits on some third and short stuff we worked and that gave them two explosive runs that shouldn’t have been there. That was on us — it really wasn’t on them. We tried to clean that up, but it was a little bit of both moving and not moving depending on what I thought they were going to do.”
Having surrendered 311 yards and 24 points in the second half of its season-opening win against Coastal Carolina and 246 first-half yards the next week against Tennessee Martin, Alley and head coach Rich Rodriguez had reason to be displeased with the defense’s inability to get off the field across part of the first two games.
Most of those struggles centered around the pass defense and a lack of containment of opposing quarterbacks.
Virginia entered the Week 3 matchup a run-heavy team with a mobile quarterback in Beau Pribula, who was held in check. Pribula was sacked three times, netted minus 1 rushing yard on eight attempts and completed 21-of-33 passes for 197 yards.
The Mountaineers mixed and matched often, and playing their second straight contest without defensive end Darius Wiley after he suffered a season-ending injury on the first play of the fourth quarter in Week 1, Alley’s unit found strength in numbers while showcasing its depth to help maintain fresh legs.
Along the defensive line, Zeke Durham-Campbell was in on 40 snaps, KJ Henson played 27, Emerson Joy 10, true freshman Yendor Mack seven and Will LeBlanc and Taylor Brown four apiece in addition to essentially every down snaps logged from two players with the most experience at WVU in Nate Gabriel and Corey McIntyre, who logged 60 and 56 snaps, respectively.
At bandit, David Afogho logged 20 snaps and a sack where he had a free run at Pribula, and Harper Holloman continued to showcase his versatility by being used in a variety of roles across 43 defensive plays. Tobi Haastrup and Jeremiah Johnson also played sparingly off the edge.
“We move Harper Holloman around a lot of places, because he can do that,” Alley said. “He’s really smart. He understands the game. Football is easy for him. He just gets it. So I try to put him in places where I feel he can maybe be more effective or more helpful depending on what personnel they’re in, what they’re doing. So we’re trying to move those guys and use them different ways, because we’re pretty competent in that room right now as far as our ability to do different things.”
Of the team’s two other sacks, one was recorded by linebacker Ashton Woods, who continued his strong start to the 2026 campaign, and the other from defensive back Geimere Latimer II, who brought down Pribula on fourth down with just inside 5 minutes remaining to all but wrap up the result.
Alley admitted the defense held back on some of what it showed across the first two weeks in an effort to save it for Virginia, and that decision seemed to pay off.
“We didn’t necessarily do all the things we do against UT Martin,” Alley said. “Nothing against them. We just didn’t need to in the game. Some of the things that we gave Virginia, we’d been working on for a while and just didn’t need to call them. From a play calling standpoint, it was maybe more dialed into the game plan of the week because we knew kind of this is what we’re going to get and here’s how we want to attack.”
The challenge is likely to be much different come 7 p.m. Saturday when the Mountaineers welcome Oklahoma State for a 7 p.m. kickoff and the Big 12 Conference opener for both teams.
Cowboys’ quarterback Drew Mestemaker followed head coach Eric Morris from North Texas to Stillwater in the offseason, and after completing 319 passes for 4,379 yards with 34 touchdowns in 2025, the redshirt sophomore has offered a strong initial impression.
In wins against Oregon and Murray State, Mestemaker has completed 46-of-65 passes for 641 yards with seven touchdowns and two interceptions.
Factoring in a Week 1 loss to Tulsa, Mestemaker is 75-for-114 with 882 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s also rushed for 106 yards and one touchdown thanks to his 109-yard effort with a rushing score against Oregon, which was ranked No. 6 at the time of that matchup.
Mestemaker’s ability to consistently get the ball out quickly makes it tough for the opposition to rush him and the Cowboys lead the Big 12 thus far with an average of 306.3 passing yards and 528 total yards.
“We played more guys at d-end than we had played previously, and still trying to figure out who are our best guys,” Rodriguez said. “Against a team like this that’s going to be tempo and throw the ball a lot, you have to have a lot of guys ready to play up front. This is going to be the biggest challenge we’ve had by far to date as far as trying to get some pressure without having to blitz all the time.”
That brings different obstacles into play for Alley, who is known for exotic blitz packages in an effort to disrupt the rhythm of opposing quarterbacks.
“It’s like 1.8 seconds on average he gets the ball out. That’s quick,” Alley said. “That’s catch and throw. You have to make him hold it, mess with his head and where he’s throwing the ball and what he’s doing. He does a great job of having answers of where the ball should go, where you want to throw it and how to attack you.”