Shanna Rose | WV Sports Chat
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Fall Camp is underway for the West Virginia University football team, and defensive coordinator Zac Alley believes the Mountaineers have maintained one of their defensive strengths from the spring.
With that said, the second-year defensive coordinator believes the team must learn how to turned those forced fumbles into recovered turnovers.
Forcing takeaways continues to be a major emphasis for WVU’s defense this fall, and Alley sees signs that the hard work is paying off after the first day of practice.
“One thing we emphasize all the time trying to trying to punch the ball out and attack the ball,” Alley said. “I think we were either one or two in the country last year at that. Now, we got to recover them. We weren’t very good at that last year. We’d punch it out, couldn’t get on it. Today was I saw some of those things show up, some of the technique things that you know, you coach up all summer, you talk about, you emphasize. So, that was good to see. But I would say that just watching our guys having an opportunity to to go out and actually play cuz in the summer, you’re kind of just doing it indie and separate was was good to see.”
Alley credits the early progress to the continuity that has carried over from the spring. Most of the roster participated in spring drills and is familiar with the Mountaineers’ defensive scheme.
“The continuity’s good,” he said. “You could see it today. Obviously, you know, 90% of team, I think, was here for spring ball. A couple new additions in the summer, but to get guys who’ve who’ve been out there in practice with us before and all that, you could see the carryover through spring to summer. And just working things that we’ve done more of. I think that’s the that’s actually it’s a refreshing that they knew what the calls were and what we’re doing and there were some consistent coaching going on there. So, obviously good to have the the team intact from from then to now.”
While Alley is happy with how the defense looked day one, WVU has plenty of work to do before the season opener against Coastal Carolina on Sept. 5 and before Big 12 play begins.
Photo credit: Kelsie LeRose, WV Sports Now
