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At least in some aspects, a new face at defensive coordinator made a difference for the West Virginia University football team.
Jeff Koonz spent his first game in the role in the Mountaineers' 31-24 win Saturday at Cincinnati. Koonz, the inside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator, took the defensive coordinator job during the bye week after former coordinator Jordan Lesley was dismissed. After being maligned for much of the 2024 season, the unit played a major part in the victory.
A big change came in WVU's turnover production. Entering Saturday, West Virginia had forced just six turnovers all season. Against the Bearcats, the Mountaineers forced three, returned two of them for touchdowns and a third led to a field goal.
Spur Tyrin Bradley scored one of those defensive touchdowns, snatching a backward pass from Cincinnati quarterback Brenden Sorsby and taking it 14 yards for WVU's final score. Bradley said a lot of that success came from the formations Koonz put the defense in.
"All credit to the coaches, and Coach Koonz," he said. "They do a great job of putting us in great position and getting us disguised. We knew we were going to give him some looks that he probably hadn't seen before. So it was up to us to make the plays and, as you can see, we did that."
Bradley said there was something different about how Koonz led the defense compared to his predecessor.
"I wouldn't say it was a different mentality, but it was a better understanding of what our job was across the ball," Bradley said. "When he got the promotion, he told us that he was going to take our best players and do what they're good at. That includes me, getting me in the rush more and getting our guys who can get after the quarterback involved more."
WVU head coach Neal Brown admitted that people often put too much importance on the plays a coordinator calls in a game. What made Koonz so effective in his first foray as WVU's defensive coordinator, Brown felt, was how Koonz worked with staff and players on Saturday and the days prior.
"I'm happy for him, but I'm not surprised," Brown said. "He's called a defense before. He understands the big picture. He's got a calm demeanor and I thought he handled it well and got us into really good calls.
"And I thought, situationally, at the end of the game, he did a nice job understanding that yards didn't matter," he added. "They had to fight the clock."
NOTES
• Quarterback Garrett Greene might not have been on the field Saturday, but the man who played in his stead said his presence was felt - and very important - during the game.
Greene, a fifth-year senior and the Mountaineers' usual starter, missed his second contest after leaving the Kansas State game with a head injury. Redshirt sophomore Nicco Marchiol made his second straight start in his place, and said Greene was a crucial voice in preparing for the Bearcats.
"That's a veteran," Marchiol said. "That's a veteran in this offense and in this program. Anything he says to me, I'm more than happy to listen to. He was in every single meeting, every single game prep. Everytime I watched film, I asked if he could come in and watch with me.
"Someone like that, they've played so many dang snaps, they've got a really good feel for the game and was someone who performed well against these guys last year," he added. "He's such a role model for me and such a good reflection of what the WVU quarterbacks are."
Marchiol got the win, but wasn't nearly as accurate as he was in beating Arizona, when he completed nearly 82% of his passes. Against Cincinnati, he connected on 9 of 15 passes for 156 yards, a touchdown and an interception. At 248 total yards, WVU had its worst output since its season-opening loss to Penn State.
Marchiol put that offensive performance on his shoulders.
"So much of it starts with me," he said, "just routine plays we repped all week, that I got to see all week, and then just not being accurate on my throws.
"Offense is such a rhythm thing," he continued. "If I take the wrong drop, then I'm off by that much with the timing of the route and the receiver."
• Brown said that one of WVU's most effective, yet underrated weapons on Saturday was kick returner/punt returner Preston Fox. While the Bearcats never started a drive any farther than their own 32, WVU started near midfield three times off of kick and punt returns.
Fox averaged 28 yards per kick return with a long of 43, and averaged 15 yards per punt return with a long of 29.
"Preston Fox has been beat up," Brown said, "not anything that kept him out of games, but just beat up. I thought he was huge. Today, we won the field position battle soundly."