West Virginia’s defensive coordinator Zac Alley isn’t a quiet coach. He said he’s not a yeller, but he’s definitely loud in games and in practice.

“I always say whoever you are, if you’re that guy on Tuesday, be that guy on Saturday,” Alley said. “Don’t show up and yell on Saturday if you don’t on Tuesday and vice versa. Try to be consistent from practice to the game.”

Alley having to raise his voice makes sense, especially given the past performances from his defensive unit. WVU has allowed 38-plus points over the past four Big 12 games, and most of it was due to a couple of big plays after mental mistakes.

On fourth down, when WVU’s defense was a stop away from getting the offense back on the field, UCF quarterback Tayven Jackson threw a 40-yard touchdown pass to Chris Domercant. It was a painful shot because Alley’s defense had UCF dead in the water.

Of course, this frustrated Alley, and he got loud because the team repped the mesh play used in the touchdown in practice all week. The defender stepped up and tried to get the quarterback, leaving the deep third open for the score.

“Which is very much a no,” Alley said. “Something you can’t do. It’s a young guy. A freshman who’s in there trying to make a play. That’s a mistake he’ll remember and I’m sure he won’t make next week.”

Then, there was another deep shot on the ensuing drive where WVU was in a Cover 3 and didn’t mark the deep post. Alley put that as simply not doing “our job.”

“That’s something we got to work on,” Alley said. “Because on third down we’re pretty good, and on fourth down, we’ve not been up to the standard that we need to be.”

The issue is that these types of mental mistakes are a recurring problem for the defense. WVU continues to give up big plays and miss assignments. It’s not just on defense, but the offense struggles with that too. It’s more recognized on defense because when the defense messes up, it turns into a touchdown. When the offense makes a mistake, it’s a 1-yard loss.

Alley might get loud when he tries to teach, but he has to strategically choose when he does it and who he does it to. It’s harder to get on players after a bad performance. In the heat of the moment, yes, but you can’t dogpile on after a tough road loss.

“You always want to build guys up throughout the week,” Alley said. “Particularly after a bad performance in a game. Show them what went wrong and try to fix those things, and create buy-in to what you’re going towards. Show them the good things when they were good, and show them the bad when they were bad. I think throughout the week, as you get back to game day, you want to build their confidence back.”

Confidence is such an important part of football, and WVU’s lack of it is an issue each week. The players aren’t trusting the positions Alley and his staff put them in on the field. The players have talked about Alley’s intelligence in how he positions them well enough to make the plays. The players just haven’t shown it on the field.

The confidence comes through preparation and self-belief. Multiple times, the players and Rodriguez said they thought they had a great week of practice, but couldn’t translate that to the game. That seems to be the key to at least making these games more competitive this season.

Alley and his staff are trying to make that transition more seamless, so WVU’s defense isn’t gashed by 35-plus points again.

“I think we feel like right now that we have to be perfect all the time when we get into games,” Alley said. “There’s a little bit of not playing free. It comes with that kind of paralysis and just trusting that if I do my job and go to my spot, that it’s going to come to me.”