Zac Alley Details Why WVU Defense Still Makes Him ‘Mad’

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – In keeping up with his “never satisfied” demeanor, WVU defensive coordinator Zac Alley offered his honest assessment of the performance against Virginia. West Virginia won and the defense put together their best showing of the season to date, but that doesn’t mean Alley is ready to crown anyone.

The Mountaineer defense sacked Beau Pribula three times, caused him to work under pressure all game and only allowed 197 passing yards. However, the Cavaliers still racked up 354 yards of total offense and ran the ball to the tune of 157.

Alley noted that while the secondary was aggressive and played well, they still made too many mistakes. They still melted down in Virginia’s final possession, allowing a non-consequential late touchdown due to consecutive penalties and a targeting call against safety Nick Taylor.

“The last drive really made me mad, just not doing our job,” said Alley, who seemed just as annoyed days later as he was at the time. He explained what happened as playing not to lose instead of playing to win and admitted the players didn’t enact what he called on multiple occasions during Virginia’s last offensive possession.

Alley also made sure to make his feeling about the targeting clear, too. “That’s a no-no. You can’t do that at any point,” responded Alley, even going as far as to say he expects Taylor’s penalty to be used as an example of what not to do and how to ensure targeting is enforced.

As for the defensive line and linebacker level, they coughed up a couple big runs and let Xavier Brown find holes up the middle, something that did not happen in the first two games.

On the positive end and what led to a solid overall effort, WVU linebacker Ashton Woods credited the improved communication.

Find more coverage of Zac Alley and the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.

For a related story, Mike Asti’s main takeaways from West Virginia’s signature win.