Boise State’s pass defense has been getting exposed, and the Broncos know the answer starts up front.
For Jayden Virgin-Morgan, that means the job is bigger than the sack column. The fifth-year edge rusher has only one sack through three games, but Boise State’s coaches keep pointing to the same thing: he’s doing what they’ve asked, even if the splash plays haven’t piled up yet.
“PFF is awesome, but PFF doesn’t know the defensive play call, right?” defensive coordinator Erik Chinander said Monday, referring to Pro Football Focus.
“Quite frankly, on a system like PFF or whatever, by no fault of theirs, if somebody goes completely rogue and gets a sack, they get a huge positive grading even though it might have hurt the defense. (But) did he do his job? And JV does his job, and the production will come.”
Virgin-Morgan, for his part, isn’t pretending the start has been perfect.
“I just need to be a little bit more consistent in my game,” he told reporters Tuesday. “There’s definitely room to grow, and I don’t think I’ve scratched the surface of what I can do. So I think there’s a lot of room to grow.”
The numbers tell a mixed story. Virgin-Morgan has eight tackles, including three for loss, and he notched his first sack of the season late in Saturday’s 38-24 win over South Dakota.
He was a second-team all-Mountain West selection last year, and after posting 16 sacks over the past two seasons, he entered this year with plenty of attention. ESPN ranked him No. 61 among college football players heading into the season, making him one of only two Group of Six players in the top 100.
Still, Boise State’s coaches say his impact goes beyond the obvious. Spencer Danielson said Monday that Virgin-Morgan has delivered where it matters in the run game.
“He’s only got the one sack, but he’s had a bunch of QB hits, and he’s doing everything that we’d asked him to do,” Danielson said Monday.
That’s important because the Broncos need more disruption on passing downs. Through three games, Boise State has just five sacks and 12 quarterback hits, with Virgin-Morgan accounting for two of those hits. The Broncos are giving up 381 passing yards per game, a number that puts them 136th out of 138 teams.
The hope is that better heat on the quarterback will help the entire defense settle in, especially a back end that has already absorbed too many big plays. Virgin-Morgan sees it as a shared assignment.
“The front and the back end work together,” Virgin-Morgan said Tuesday.
“That’s one big thing that we’ve been honing in on for sure, and it’s knowing that if we pressure the quarterback, that gives our DBs time to either get an interception or lock down the guy, or if the DB is locking down a guy, we have more time to get to the quarterback.”
For Boise State, that formula will be tested Saturday at Western Michigan. The Broncos and Broncos meet for the first time at Waldo Stadium, where Boise State is listed as a 7.5-point favorite.
The game is set for ESPN 2, with Boise State coming in at 2-1 and Western Michigan also 2-1. The forecast calls for partly sunny skies, a high of 71 and a low of 44.
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