MORGANTOWN — West Virginia football’s defense couldn’t do and show much during the Gold-Blue Spring Festival. Rich Rodriguez said he asked defensive coordinator Zac Alley to dial it back on some of his play calls. Two of the quarterbacks were in touch-only jerseys and on free rushers, the play was cut before the quarterback was brought down.

The defense was one of the major areas that had a lot of intrigue this offseason. Most of the defensive starters are gone due to graduations, and there were a lot of transfers added to fill some holes. Seeing the defense in action would’ve given a sneak peek at some of the improvements at certain positions.

But it was hard to tell based on the spring game, so most of the adjustments and progress came from Alley’s words after the spring.

“I do feel like, as a group, we’ve made a lot of strides since they got here in January,” Alley said. “We had a lot to learn. Lots of guys learning how to play, how to practice, how to be at this level, developing leadership and competitive depth, all those things are important. We’re in the process of doing that.”

As Alley broke down where the defense has made strides, he mentioned multiple times that it’s a lot easier to progress because the players that are practicing this spring will be there in the fall. There’s no spring transfer portal period to worry about, like last year.

“I think that last year, there were another 41 new players in the summer, you were building your team again,” Alley said. “Fall camp, trying to figure out who could do what, what everybody was good at, what roles you want them to play, how you were going to use them. I think there’s a lot more continuity, leaving spring ball this year with just some understanding of who we have and how we’re going to try and use them in the defense.”

WVU has a lot of new players, but there are some returners who have been crucial this spring, teaching the new players how to play, practice and act in Alley’s defense. Linebacker Ben Cutter’s return was big for Alley because the linebackers run the defense, so having a returner like that, who knows the system, is relieving.

In the secondary, Nick Taylor returns, and he’s similar to Cutter in the sense that he’s a voice and a leader who has a year of playing for Alley under his belt.

Alley said having those two back is like having an extension of himself on the defense. When Alley is not in a room, he knows he can count on those two to correct and teach the new players.

“Guys who played in the system, that helps everybody, because they’re confident,” Alley said. “They know what to say and how to call things out. They know how to get the other guys lined up. Even though there was decent turnover on the roster, it wasn’t everybody’s new, and trying to learn. It was okay, ‘Hey, this portion of guys is new.'”

Aside from Cutter and Taylor, WVU is pretty new at linebacker and in the secondary.

The Mountaineers used a lot of money at linebacker in the portal, bringing in a lot of veteran players, which include from Power Four teams. Alley provided some promising information regarding the room.

“I think we’re pretty deep,” Alley said. “We roll out there about six guys who can help us win right now.”

There are still areas to grow at linebacker. Other than Cutter, the rest of the linebackers could all be new faces this fall.

For those players, Alley still wants them to be more vocal and know how to hold each other accountable.

“That’s always a challenge,” Alley said. “It’s the same as the quarterback on offense; by default, you play linebacker, you’re in a leadership role. If it’s not right, it’s on you; it’s not on anybody else. I think the guys like that. I think they accept that challenge. I recruited them like that, and they should know that was what was going to happen coming in here. I think that they’ve done a good job of stepping up to the plate.”

Alley had promising things to say about nickel, too.

“I think our nickel room is really good,” Alley said. “We’ll use them in a lot of different ways and help those guys be successful. I feel confident in the guys we have in the room.”

WVU’s defense couldn’t show too much during the spring game. But, from what Alley said after the game and his overall assessment on the spring as a whole, it sounds like his defense is making progress.

And everything comes back to the fact that the Mountaineers know what they have, since there is no spring portal.

“The nice part of this year is you don’t lose half your team here in about three weeks,” Alley said. “Hopefully, the development of those things that have happened from January to now will translate as we move into summer and fall camp… I really feel like just maintaining the guys that are on your own roster makes you feel a lot better at what you can do well and what you can’t do well.”