Zac Alley Reveals What West Virginia's Defense Will Look Like in 2025 & Beyond

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Feb 21, 2025 12:43 PM ET

There have been several different defensive schemes that West Virginia has used over the years, from the famous 3-3-5 stack to a 3-4 and, more recently, some variation of a 4-2-5.

New West Virginia defensive coordinator Zac Alley was careful not to pin himself into a corner by stating they are going to run a specific scheme. He may tend to favor a certain alignment over others, but one of the things he takes pride in is presenting a different picture every single week.

“We’re extremely multiple - diverse, aggressive. I think the last couple years we’ve been top five in the country in blitz percentage. I’ve heard for a long time pressure breaks pipes. We’ll play four-down front, three-down front. We’ll do a little bit of shiting out of both of those in the same series, same personnel groups. I always laugh because when I say multiple, I really mean that. It’ll look different every week and we kind of hang our hat on being really hard to prepare for.”

Alley did state, however, that more often than not, they will rock with a three-man front, a SAM, MIKE, WILL, and a bandit (outside linebacker/defensive end in the boundary with several moving pieces in the back end.

“Week in and week out it changes. You go watch us and you’ll probably see that. There are certain weeks we play with true three safeties. Sometimes we’ll play with a three safeties and a nickel. Sometimes we’ll play with a nickel and two safeties. Sometimes we’ll play with two safeties and three linebackers. It just depends on the challenge of the week, week in and week out as to what we’re going to do. I’ve always believed that’s harder on offenses because they don’t know what they’re going to have to prepare for that week.”

As he stated himself, they're going to be extremely aggressive, particularly in critical situations, i.e., third down, red zone, etc. His biggest concern is getting to the quarterback, and he'll do whatever he needs to make sure pressure is applied.