Zac Alley’s Defense is Looking Sharper and More Confident Than Expected

Originally posted on West Virginia Mountaineers on SI
By Schuyler Callihan | Last updated Aug 19, 2025 10:18 AM ET

West Virginia's offense is going to be a fun product to watch, unlike what we've seen over the last handful of years. The defense, however, probably isn't getting talked about nearly enough, even with one of the game's brightest young minds, Zac Alley, calling the shots.

There's certainly a bunch of unknowns with how it will all play out, but I must admit, this is the most optimistic I've heard a coaching staff about a defense in Morgantown in a long, long time. Things can obviously change quickly once they see what they look like lined up against someone in a different colored jersey, but heading into the season, Rich Rodriguez feels like that side of the ball is in a pretty good spot.

“The defensive staff’s doing a great job. We’ve got to make sure we don’t forget the fundamental part of it, but they’re doing a lot of stuff — a lot more than you would expect in the first year, first couple weeks. That’s part of our plan defensively is a lot of different looks, a lot of different things, and it can be a lot for a young guy or a new guy, but our guys have done a good job with it. The multiplicity of our defense is really unique, more so than most teams. I would be worried about it and pull back the reins if I saw us making a bunch of big mental mistakes in practice, but I don’t see that. They’ve handled it pretty well.”

It also helps that many of West Virginia's projected starters and top contributors are fourth, fifth, and in some cases, sixth-year guys. They have what you call a bunch of "old heads" on that side of the ball, and when you have that many new pieces coming together, having that amount of experience helps greatly.

One of the other big differences compared to previous fall camps? Tackling.

Remember how the previous regime changed their approach in camp because of how poor the tackling was at the beginning of the season? That's not been the worry here. Defensive coordinator Zac Alley even stated at the beginning of camp that it was probably the best first few days of tackling he's seen. That remained true through the team's second scrimmage as well.

“I feel pretty good," Alley said over the weekend. "I can’t say I’ve ever gone into a game like man, I’m going to give up 50 today, I hope we can score 100. I think I can shut anybody out, any given week, if we do what we’re supposed to do and how we’re supposed to play. I’ve always got confidence in my guys because I coach them. Though we might have deficiencies here or there and you got to help a guy, we’re going to put him in situations to win and give ourselves a chance.”

When you blend experience with a creative, confident, and unpredictable play-caller, you typically get pretty good results. The Mountaineers may not have a top-25 caliber defense in 2025, but they'll hold their own and keep the team in games more often than not.