On Tuesday morning, West Virginia head football coach Neal Brown decided to dismiss defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, as reported by Pete Thamel of ESPN. Jeff Koonz, the special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach, will serve as the interim defensive coordinator.
Lesley’s defense currently ranks 113th out of 133 FBS schools in passing yards allowed per game (261.1) and 84th in total defense (382.5). The Mountaineers have consistently struggled against the pass this season, highlighted by Arizona’s star receiver Tetairoa McMillan, who had over 200 receiving yards last Saturday. While McMillan’s performance wasn’t unexpected, there were two plays that should have been avoided, both involving Lesley’s Tampa 2 coverage, which left linebacker Trey Lathan responsible for the deep middle. Both instances resulted in significant yardage gains for McMillan, including one touchdown.
“That was poor defense,” Brown commented on those plays. “Maybe it happens once. We were running a Tampa 2 where he’s covering the middle. On the first play, if we had reached the quarterback, it wouldn’t have been a problem. He did his job well, but he was outmatched during the scramble. One of those can happen, but we shouldn’t have put him in that position again. That’s not on Trey.”