West Virginia’s defense has spent most of the year taking heat, and defensive coordinator Zac Alley isn’t pretending otherwise. The frustration around the unit has spilled well beyond the stadium, and Alley was asked Tuesday how he and his players deal with all of the noise that comes with a rough season.
His answer was straightforward: keep the focus inside the building.
“I always tell them, you never want to take criticism from someone you wouldn’t take advice from. So what happens in here and what we say in this building, I want that to matter to them because we want them to be the best.
I always think it’s funny, like when you’re playing bad, everybody wants to point fingers, and it’s this, that, and the other, and I take all the blame on that. It’s not on our kids.
It’s on me. I want them to think that way too; if we just do the certain things that are right and how we do our business every day, we can be better; we can be more productive.
We saw in the second half (vs. Texas Tech) that’s a possibility.
I try to get them to tune that out. I mean, it’s harder now than it ever has been because social media and all the people, and they’re on it whether they say they are or not.
You try to encourage them to be off of it, but then their mom sends them something or whatever that looks like, so I try to encourage them to not take outside noise and to just listen to the building and the people in here and what we’re trying to do to fix things.”
That message comes at a time when the defense has been fighting to keep its confidence intact. Even with the season-long struggles, Alley pointed to the way the group answered against Texas Tech last week after allowing 41 points in the first half. West Virginia responded with four straight stops, including three three-and-outs.
There still isn’t much the unit can point to and feel good about, but Alley said the path forward starts with the basics. The defense needs to tackle better, do a better job playing the ball in the air on deep throws, and keep everything in front of it so opponents are forced into longer drives. That was the formula, he noted, in the win over TCU.
In Other News...
Rich Rodriguez Just Put West Virginia's Defensive Concerns In Focus
Rich Rodriguez used his 10th coaches show of the 2026 season to put a spotlight on where West Virginia stands after the loss to Texas Tech, and the picture was not limited to the scoreboard. He talked through injury updates for Amare Grayson and Jacob Bradford, looked ahead to Kansas, and spent time on the defensive issues that have been nagging the Mountaineers, especially the way deep passes have exposed them. Rodriguez also pointed to the broader challenge of keeping a roster steady in a season shaped by turnover, saying the answer has to include simplification.
The defensive conversation carried beyond scheme and into mindset, which is where the concern gets sharper for West Virginia. Rodriguez said the team has to clean up the mental side as much as the physical execution, even as he noted progress from Taron Francis and Keon Hutchins. With mid-season assistant coach firings becoming a talking point across college football, Rodriguez also addressed the reality of constant change around the sport, but for the Mountaineers the immediate question is whether the defense can settle in quickly enough to give them a chance against Kansas. [Read more 🡒]
Dana Holgorsen's WVU Turning Point Looks Worse Than Ever
Dana Holgorsens coaching path has taken another sharp turn, and it naturally sends the conversation back to Morgantown, where his West Virginia run once looked like it might settle into something lasting. His time with the Mountaineers had enough highs to keep hope alive, but the 2018 season became a clear reminder of how difficult it was to sustain momentum there, especially when expectations and results started drifting apart.
Now, after being fired as offensive coordinator at Nebraska by Matt Rhule, Holgorsens career arc looks even more complicated in hindsight. The West Virginia chapter already carried plenty of debate about where things started to go wrong and why the success never fully held, and his latest exit only adds another layer to that discussion for Mountaineers fans who remember how promising it all once seemed. [Read more 🡒]
Rich Rodriguez Sends A Message WVU Fans Need To Hear
Following West Virginias recent loss to Texas Tech, the frustration spilled quickly onto social media, where some fans went beyond criticism and into personal attacks on players and coaches. Rich Rodriguez used his radio show to draw a clear line, reminding the fanbase that disappointment is part of the deal but that it does not need to become personal, especially when the people inside the program already know the standard they are falling short of.
Rodriguezs message landed in a week when the broader conversation around online behavior was already getting louder in Morgantown, with mens basketball coach Ross Hodge also pointing to the damage harsh criticism can do to players and recruits. For West Virginia, it is a familiar tension in a passionate fan base: the expectations are real, the results matter, and the challenge is keeping accountability from turning into something that pushes people away. [Read more 🡒]