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MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” Most of the media focus during West Virginia's football off-season has rightfully been centered upon the quarterback position, where they welcomed JT Daniels, a one-time 5-star recruit with experience at both USC and national champion Georgia as well a top-line four-star recruit in Nicco Marchiol and two promising holdovers in Garrett Greene and Goose Crowder.

Considering the state of the offense run by the transferred Jarret Doege over the past two seasons, the magnifying glass scrutinizing the situation was not misplaced.

But as West Virginia's fall camp completed its second day on Tuesday, the time had come to shift the spotlight to the "quarterback position" on the defensive side of the ball, where there also is a new player taking over due to a transfer and how he performs may well dictate how the defense goes.

Lee Kpogba, who followed the circuitous route from his home in Ghana, West Africa, to high school ball in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Syracuse University for two years, then to East Mississippi Community College and now to Morgantown and òòò½ÊÓƵU, where he inherits the job from the departed Josh Chandler-Semedo, who led the team in tackles last season.

Defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley did not hesitate for a second when asked during his first appearance in camp which position on his side of the ball was most like the offense's quarterback.

"Mike linebacker," he replied. "That's your quarterback. The defense goes, usually, as that guy goes."

It has been that way, really, since the 1960s when there were linebackers like òòò½ÊÓƵU's own Sam Huff on the New York Giants, Ray Nitzschke with the Green Bay Packers and Dick Butkus with the Chicago Bears ... and it hasn't really changed.

"Mike Singletary, Ray Lewis .... the quarterback, that's what they are," Lesley said, picking the ball up right there. "The physical leader, the emotional leader. Maybe I'm a little bit old school, but that's how I see it."

The bandit, the safeties, they have their voices, too, but Lesley says "if you single out one guy that's the quarterback, it's the Mike linebacker."

His performance physically is so crucial that schemes are set up on defense to keep blockers off him just as offensively there are pass protection schemes provided to keep blitzers and pass rushers from getting to the quarterback.

"Now I don't think Lee Kpogba needs protected a whole bunch, but you try to do certain things to keep that guy clean as much as you can in the run game, to not put him in stressful situations where there are run and pass conflicts. That's a big thing with today's offenses," Lesley said.

How you set up your defense, Lesley said, is often about the personality of the guy you bring in.

"With Lee, it took ... um, about a day," he offered. "We looked it and said 'Yeah, that's probably a guy who can step in and people listen to. When he talks, people listen. That's important.

"It's part of the evaluation process. It's part of the intangibles. If you look at the quarterback, you look to see that he has a little something about him. You look for the same thing in a Mike linebacker."

Head coach Neal Brown has been a fan of Kpogba since he first walked through the doors of the Puskar Center.

"You know what I really like about Lee, what I appreciate about him as a coach is he's got great energy," Brown said. "The kid loves football ... and he's full of gratitude. He got here through a winding path.

"There was no silver spoon. He's so appreciative of being able to go out and practice. You can feel the gratitude when he's out there and joy he plays with," Brown continued. "He's out there talking the whole time. He's good natured and you can coach the kid. He takes coaching."

Considering that behind an experienced defensive line, there's a whole lot of new faces and it's important that Kpogba have the experience from Syracuse as a take charge leader in the middle of the defense.

To Lesley, it goes beyond physical abilities in having him step in a fill a void.

"The thing that sticks out about Lee is his mentality," he said. "When you have guys like that turnover is fine. That's going to be an easy transition. His mentality is how he plays the game and that he's eager to learn. Everything that (inside linebacker coach Jeff) Koonz says, that I say, whoever it is, he's eager.

"You turnover a guy every two years, if the guy coming in has the mentality, he has it's a lot easier. That's the way college ball is now."

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” While all of the offseason focus has been on the remaking of an impotent West Virgina offense with a high-profile quarterback now in town in the person of JT Daniels, a maturing, faster and wiser group of receivers, an offensive line returning intact and a stable of running backs with the ability to break long runs for new offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, the Mountaineer secondary has undergone not only a huge change in personnel but also in approach.

òòò½ÊÓƵ seems to occur every year, òòò½ÊÓƵU has seen cornerbacks and safeties heading out the door, either through graduation or the transfer portal, which certainly hurts experience and continuity, but which has allowed òòò½ÊÓƵU's coaching staff to re-sculpt its view of secondary òòò½ÊÓƵ” and linebacking òòò½ÊÓƵ” play.

Some of the biggest questions about the team were about the secondary's lack of experience but after Monday's first practice coach Neal Brown said he felt that might be overlooking how well they addressed that especially with three new comers òòò½ÊÓƵ” Wesley McCormick, Jasir Cos and Rashad Ajayi.

"You look at the number of snaps we brought in. You look at the number of people who are questioning our experience but they are not taking into account we added over a thousand live snaps." Brown said. "McCormick from James Madison, last time I checked, they played pretty good football, right? Cox from North Dakota State, they play pretty good football.

"And Rashad Ajayi, at Colorado State ... we added over a thousand live snaps, maybe not for us, but they played football at a high level. I believe they will be ready to help us."

What's more, Brown has singled out redshirt freshman Andrew Wilson-Lamp, a 6-foot-2 corner, as someone who has impressed him since he came on capus.

The only questionable one is Saint McLeod, a corner who was stabbed during the summer in a downtown incident and who will miss camp.

The catch words in the secondary changes are speed and length behind the experienced, talented front wall of the defense.

"The one thing we were intentionally trying to improve defensively is we've been primarily a zone coverage team and we've had success, but we haven't been able to cause as much havoc up front (pressuring the quarterback) because when you play zone coverage you can rush only four or five guys," Brown explained at Big 12 Media Day.

"We wanted to get faster, more athletic in the back end so we could play more [man-to-man] coverage and rush six or maybe even seven sometimes."

This is important.

"We can't go out every day and play zone," safety Charles Woods, an All-Big 12 preseason team selection said. "Teams will pick us apart. Having a good balance between man and zone will be great for us."

Certainly, defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley was 100 percent on board in the concept, although he possesses a definition of speed that could be termed unconventional. For him, it isn't what the stopwatch shows.

"You've heard me talk about erasers," he explained at the conclusion of spring practice. "With a combination of length and speed òòò½ÊÓƵ” length being probably a little more of a priority, depending on what you consider dynamic speed to be.

"I probably think you don't have to be as fast on the 40 times, because when do you have to run 40 yards?" he went on, posing an interesting question.

The answer is that you don't have to run straight-line 40-yard dashes very often unless you are chasing someone who has beat you deep on a pass pattern or broken loose on a run.

"I just look at closing speed. The faster you can close, no matter what your 40 time is, and the longer you are, the more you can make up for," he said.

Mistakes happen, he admits.

"There will not be a play on defense where there is not a mistake made. It's just not the design of the game," he said "So the more guys you have who can athletically erase those mistakes, the better off you are."

Speed and length. That will allow more one-on-one coverage and you can't overstate how important that really is.

Lesley thinks back to last year when òòò½ÊÓƵU lost by 6 to Maryland, 3 to Oklahoma and 3 to Texas Tech. Find a way to win those three games òòò½ÊÓƵ” and there was a say òòò½ÊÓƵ” and a 6-7 season becomes a 9-4 year.

"I look at three plays from Oklahoma and Texas Tech. They are one-score games," Lesley said. "When you have games of that margin, the margin for error is really small. You always go back and see 'if we make this play, in that situation òòò½ÊÓƵ” maybe where you are on the field or the time of the game, maybe just before half, maybe late in the game òòò½ÊÓƵ” if you make those plays maybe the momentum shifts.

"What are momentum plays? he continued. "Ninety-five percent of the time they are turnovers. If you add momentum to your sideline, the whole end of the game changes. You make a play at the end of the half and it can make the whole end of the game scenario different.

"We had a play against Texas Tech. It was fourth down, I think the ball was tipped. If you make the play, you take 3 off the scoreboard and now, at the end of the game they are kicking to tie as opposed to kicking to win.

"You can find those plays. There are hundreds of them, but you can always find two or three of them in a close game that would have made a difference."

Sometimes they aren't as obvious. Speed? Not getting into position to make a tackle or a play.

Length? Having a ball tip off your fingertip into the receiver's hand rather than knocking it down or intercepting it.

"At point of contact in the run game, it allows you to separate and see, diagnose the play," Lesley said. "Instead of just leaving windows in the pass game, when balls are not cleanly caught, now they can give it that little nudge to get it out. There's more tips, more balls in the air, more opportunities.

"That's the thing we have to improve on the most," Lesley stressed. "Everyone wants the perfect drop, pick, go score but a lot of the turnovers come off of opportunities the fans don't see. To them, it's just a dropped ball."

So òòò½ÊÓƵU has brought in people who can help in such areas.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) -- With a new offensive coordinator in Graham Harrell promising a big-play offense that will "try to score on every play", with a new quarterback in JT Daniels who comes equipped with five stars on his recruiting resume and a national championship ring won last year at the school, Georgia, from which he graduated, one might say that the slogan for this season's Mountaineers should be "keep your eye on the ball."

But as the team prepares to gather for its first official workout on Monday, exactly one month from the long-awaited season opener with a renewal of the Backyard Brawl in Pittsburgh after an 11-year hiatus, coach Neal Brown contends that a different slogan may be far more fitting.

He believes it would be far more correct to look toward a 63-year-old Winston cigarette advertisement that proclaimed "It's what's up front that counts" if you want to capture the essence of what this pivotal season in his òòò½ÊÓƵU coaching career is all about.

"Our strengths are our offensive and defensive lines," Brown stressed at Big 12 Media Day a couple of weeks ago.

And that, he proclaims, puts the Mountaineers to make large strides from last season's 6-7 performance that including a season-ending loss in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl game to Minnesota.

"Any time your strength is on both lines of scrimmage, you've got a chance," Brown said.

The offensive line, which has been a disappointment since Brown arrived, believes it is on the verge of putting it all together.

"We return seven of our top offensive linemen," he stressed.

This is something he has been building toward, using his All-American center Zach Frazier from Fairmont Senior High School as the focal point he patiently put the pieces in place.

James Gmiter and Doug Nester, now fit into their proper slots and experienced, are at the guards while Wyatt Milum is at left tackle and Michael Yates battles Da'Quay Hubbard for the starting job on the right side.

If òòò½ÊÓƵU is looking for any one area of improvement this year out of the offensive line, it is in physicality. Whenever òòò½ÊÓƵU has been good in the past this has been a huge part of the success.

A couple of òòò½ÊÓƵU All-American offensive linemen from the past know how important it is. Whenever there's a story about the òòò½ÊÓƵU offense, Brian Jozwiak from the 1988 undefeated team offers up this comment:

"The offensive line wins games."

Another person who knows about that is Ryan Stanchek, twice an All-American while blocking for Pat White and Steve Slaton Stancheck has been an O-line coach and offensive coordinator since leaving, now at Austin Peay.

He likes what he's seen.

"I have followed Zach Frazier. He reminds me of the kind of guy that we played with. He has that dirtbag mentality," he said. "I'm hoping they bring that back to offensive line. That physicality, he has it.

"The offensive line has been the missing link. This could be a very strong year for them up front. A lot of times you go like the offensive line goes."

But that other line, the one the O-line faces every day in practice, also is considered the strength of the defense, despite losing potential All-American Akheem Mesidor to Miami via the transfer portal.

The defense line is built around All-American Dante Stills, who will play both defensive tackle but line up in various positions, a quick, exciting pass rusher to go with Taijh Alston, who seems to be sitting on a breakout season after an injury-marred career, and tackle John Jefferson, who slides into Mesidor's spot after gaining a lot of playing experience last season.

"I'm playing with a lot of confidence," Jefferson said during spring workouts "This is going into my fourth year with the defense. I'm comfortable with it. I know what to do. I got a lot of film, a lot of playing time under my belt, a lot of snaps, so I'm confident."

He showed that his time is now at the end of last season when his playing time increased and he had five solo tackles and 10 total tackles over the season's final six games.

And Alston has all the potential after battling through injuries to be the dynamic presence that takes pressure of Stills.

While Alston's technique isn't always perfection, he overcomes it with ability and determination.

òòò½ÊÓƵœHe makes up for is how hard he plays, and to a point of reckless sometimes, which is fine at that position," defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley noted early last season before he started putting things together. "Thatòòò½ÊÓƵ™s a guy that youòòò½ÊÓƵ™ll see as the season goes onòòò½ÊÓƵ¦and the speed of that starts to slow down as he starts to stack games; heòòò½ÊÓƵ™ll be a lot better. Heòòò½ÊÓƵ™ll be a guy that continues to takes steps as the season goes on.òòò½ÊÓƵ�

And that was just how it worked out.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” West Virginia's spring practice comes to an end Saturday with the almost annual Blue and Gold Spring Game, which unveils the Mountaineers' new Air Raid offense under offensive coordinator Graham Harrell and will debut a number of new players at key positions on the defensive side of the ball.

Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Mountaineer Field with gates opening at noon. Tickets are $10 with a portion of the revenue going to òòò½ÊÓƵU's Childrens Hospital. More than $778,000 have been raised over the years.

The game can be heard on the Mountaineer Sports Network and will be streamed on ESPN+.

This, of course, has been a crucial spring for the Mountaineers as they come off a 6-7 season that ended with bowl loss to Minnesota. With transfers coming and going, involving key personnel on both sides of the ball, there is increasing interest in what will be played as a traditional game.

Here are some key things to look at as you try to evaluate next season's Mountaineers, who open on Thursday, Sept. 1, with a renewal of the Backyard Brawl rivalry with Pitt at Heinz Field.

Passing game, Part I: QBs

This will be tricky evaluation because the key man in making big plays will not be on the field. òòò½ÊÓƵU has gotten a commitment from former five-star quarterback J.T. Daniels, who has started at both Georgia and USC. He comes via the transfer portal and is expected to be a major upgrade from Jarret Doege.

But this will provide a chance for the coaches òòò½ÊÓƵ” and the fans òòò½ÊÓƵ” to evaluate the three young quarterbacks who have battled for position through the spring òòò½ÊÓƵ” last year's backup, Garrett Greene, redshirt freshman Will "Goose" Crowder and top high school recruit Nicco Marchiol.

"They've been up and down," coach Neal Brown said. "Individually, Garrett has been operating at a higher level than he has. The game has slowed down for him. He's throwing the deep ball extremely accurately right now, which is a positive.

"He has to eliminate the big negative plays. For him, not making bad plays worse. Every once in a while, hey, just play the next one. Every play is not going to be a big one.

"For Goose, it's confidence. The change of scheme probably affected him because he had to restart after a year. Everything is just a little fast for him.

"Nicco, it's a really hard transition the first spring because the game is so fast. You can see some real flashes. He had a phenomenal play in a scrimmage, a naked out to the right and did a really good job getting his shoulders around and it went for a touchdown.

"He's also turned the ball over some. Not all of those are his fault. But what really sticks out on him to me is he's hungry, he hasn't repeated the same mistake very often, a sign he's spending time away from what's required."

Passing game, Part II: Receivers

òòò½ÊÓƵU lost a lot of key receivers to the transfer portal but is shedding no tears over it.

"I love our receiver room right now. We don't have a ton of bodies in there, so we've had to figure out how to best use our personnel," he said. "We are trying to figure out what's our best 11 and what's our best stuff to run with that 11," Harrell said.

The key receivers are veteran starters Bryce Ford-Wheaton and Sam James, both potential big players, and Kaden Prather, who all agree in his second year has potential to be that special king of receiver you look for.

He had a breakout game last season against Kansas State, leading Neal Brown to say:

"He's going to be a player, he is. He's gotten better and he made some plays. One was against man coverage on third down. He's a kid I've got a lot of belief in and I'm happy with how he's maturing."

That maturity carried over into this spring.

Running backs òòò½ÊÓƵ” Big plays

With the offensive line returning intact, òòò½ÊÓƵU believes it will become more dangerous on the ground despite losing two-time 1,000-yard rusher Leddie Brown.

Tony Mathis, who stepped forward in the second half of last season, has become the leader of the pack, but there are a couple of big play backs pushing him in Clemson transfer Lyn-J Dixon and Justin Johnson while Jaylen Anderson has run himself into playing time.

"Top to bottom, I'd say this is the most talented running back room I've had since I've been here," running back coach Chad Scott said this spring. "Now, Mathis is the only one who has had production on the field. The other guys have to go out there and do it in game situations."

They now have gotten to a game situation.

While Mathis' abilities are known, there is much anticipation over Dixon putting his game-breaking speed on display. Dixon has averaged 65 yards per carry through his career at Clemson, gaining a total of 1,420 yards. He scored 13 touchdowns on 218 carries, that's TD for each 16.7 rushes.

Replacing Akheem Mesidor

It was an unexpected loss when the star defensive lineman went into the portal, but he was going to miss the spring due to shoulder surgery anyway. òòò½ÊÓƵ Mesidor moves on to Miami, Jordan Jefferson moves into his spot.

Jefferson is a different kind of player, one described by defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley as "Mack truck." which could make òòò½ÊÓƵU more difficult for the bigger, better teams in the conference to run against and force Lesley to do more blitzing to get a stronger pass rush.

"I'm playing with a lot of confidence," Jefferson, acknowledged as the strongest Mountaineer, said this spring. "This is going into my fourth year with the defense. I'm comfortable with it. I know what to do. I got a lot of film, a lot of playing time under my belt, a lot of snaps."

With Dante Stills and Taj Alston, it makes the D-line one of the league's best despite Mesidor going out the door.

Three to look at

The game is important for a number of players, but three have jumped up through the spring. òòò½ÊÓƵU went into spring practice looking for improved production at its Bandit position.

Lanell Carr has battled for the spot with Jarrett Bartlett and coordinator Jordan Lesley says "both have had a phenomenal spring."

"I think Lanell is a lot like, in the time frame of development, what you're seeing with Jordan Jefferson going into this spring ... one of our most improved players who has a natural knack to rush the passer. That's the reason we signed him," Lesley said.

Spring opened with a big hole at middle linebacker to replace Josh Chandler-Semedo, who transferred. Lee Kpogba, a former Syracuse player, has brought a great deal of energy to that spot.

"He's come and really established himself from the first week he was here," Brown said during the spring. "He's one of our hardest workers and he's extremely appreciative, has a lot of gratitude and is one of our best teammates."

He's also been one of the best tacklers and will be worth watching.

And one of the players allowing òòò½ÊÓƵU to rebuild its secondary is CAT safety Davis Mallinger, who brings speed, speed and more speed to the secondary. A redshirt freshman who came to òòò½ÊÓƵU out of Melbourne, Florida, as a wide receiver, he was a 200-meter track star with a time of 21.57 seconds in high school.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” It didn't take long for West Virginia defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley to become "excited about" òòò½ÊÓƵ” the words are his òòò½ÊÓƵ” Lee Kpogba. Lesley recruited Kpogba in 2017 only to have him flip to Syracuse, where he played 22 games but never found his real stride. His going away gift to the Orange, however, was an eight-tackle performance against Notre Dame in the season finale.

He left after that game to attend East Mississippi, a junior college that has become of great recruiting interest to òòò½ÊÓƵU under Neal Brown.

East Mississippi finished 9-1 and No. 7 in the nation in Kpogba's one year there. It led the nation in scoring defense at 12.8 points allowed per game and was No. 4 in total defense, giving up 230.5 yards per game in 2021.

Kpogba did his best Josh Chandler-Semedo imitation with 84 tackles, 34 of them solo, two sacks, 5.5 for a loss, an interception and a fumble recovery.

He looked like the right man to replace Chandler-Semedo, so Brown recruited him to òòò½ÊÓƵU for a second time.

"2nd time ain't nothing like the first. You gotta make the most of it," Kpogba said in a tweet after making his decision last December.

But a month later, things went crazy when Chandler-Semedo surprised the òòò½ÊÓƵU coaching staff by announcing he was coming back for the Super Senior season awarded to those who played during the COVID pandemic.

It was a huge lift for the defense, but it was short-lived as Chandler-Semedo soon reversed field like Tavon Austin on a kickoff return and entered the transfer portal, making Kgpoba one of the key projects of the spring.

From Day 1 of spring practice, everyone has been pumping him up, even when he shows his unfamiliarity with the system.

"He makes mistakes ... like not touching the right cone or whatever ... but he always owns it," Lesley said, making a positive out of a negative. "That's the one thing he does, he fixes it and goes on to the next rep. That's something overall we have to do a better job of, focusing on what's next.

"He has that mentality. Whether it translates to the games, we'll see."

That is always the unknown.

"The guy went to Syracuse, and it didn't work out," Neal Brown noted.

But he owned up to it.

"He got humbled. He went down to East Mississippi Junior College and now he has this new lease. He never has a bad day. He's attacked workouts. He's done a nice job of learning, so I'm excited for him," Brown said as spring practice began.

Nothing that has happened so far has changed the opinion. While an emphasis on the defense has been to find interchangeable parts òòò½ÊÓƵ” players who can play two or more positions, be it safety and linebacker or safety and corner òòò½ÊÓƵ” Kpogba is stamped solely as a middle linebacker.

"His primary position is linebacker. Skill set wise we're trying to bring in guys who can do different things with maybe one exception òòò½ÊÓƵ” Lee Kpogba," Lesley said. "He's a true Mike. He plays that way. That's what he is, and for the entirety of his career that's what he's going to be."

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (òòò½ÊÓƵ News) òòò½ÊÓƵ” While others focus on the many hits West Virginia's secondary has taken through graduation and in the transfer portal over the past two years, defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley looks at it as addition through subtraction rather than taking a view through "why-is-this-happening-to-us" tears.

True, since 2020, òòò½ÊÓƵU has seen an outward migration of potential starting cornerbacks and safeties, including Tykee Smith, Dreshun Miller, Kerry Martin, Jackie Matthews, Daryl Porter and Nicktroy Fortune.

These were talented players around whom much of the defense was being built, but they are gone and, to Lesley, best forgotten.

He, instead, sees a chance to upgrade the product anyway with a different look, the emphasis being changed to length and speed.

"You've heard me talk about erasers," Lesley said recently. "With a combination of length and speed òòò½ÊÓƵ” length being probably a little more of a priority, depending on what you consider dynamic speed to be, you can erase mistakes."

Why length over speed?

"I probably think you don't have to be as fast on the 40 times, because when do you have to run 40 yards? Does that make sense?

"I just look at closing speed. The faster you can close, no matter what your 40 time is, the longer you are, the more you can make up for."

And like it or not, there is always someone on defense who has to make up for a mistake.

"There will not be a play on defense where there is not a mistake made," Lesley said. "It's just not the design of the game. So, the more guys you have who can athletically erase those mistakes, the better off you are."

The margin between winning and losing often is very small. òòò½ÊÓƵ bad as last season was for the Mountaineers, finishing at 6-7 with a loss to Minnesota in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl, Lesley sees as many as three games that a bit more length, a little more speed could have changed.

He goes back to the Oklahoma loss, 16-13, on the last possession and the Texas Tech 23-20 loss.

"I look at those three plays from Oklahoma and Texas Tech. They are one score games," he said. "When you have games of that margin, the margin for error is really small. You always go back and see 'if we make this play, in that situation òòò½ÊÓƵ” maybe where you are on the field or the time of the game, maybe just before half, maybe late in the game òòò½ÊÓƵ” if you make those plays, maybe the momentum shifts.

"What are momentum plays? Ninety-five percent of the time they are turnovers. If you add momentum to your sideline, the whole end of the game changes. You make a play at the end of the half and it can make the whole end of the game scenario different.

"We had a play against Texas Tech. It was fourth down, I think the ball was tipped. If you make the play, you take three off the scoreboard and now, at the end of the game, they are kicking to tie as opposed to kicking to win.

"You can find those plays. There's hundreds of them, but you can always find in a close game two or three of them that would have made a difference in the game, changed the situation at the end of the game totally different and maybe the momentum would be different."

It keeps coming up.

"Kansas State, we don't have a penalty, We're down 7-0, Exree Loe picks the ball, we at least get points there. Maybe it's 7-3, who knows? Maybe it's 7-7 and we have momentum. Now it's a totally different game."

But the pick didn't count due to a penalty.

"When balls are not cleanly caught, now they can give that little nudge to get it out and get more tipped balls in the air, more opportunities, which is probably something I look at that we've got to improve on overall," Lesley said.

"Everybody wants the perfect drop or pick and go score, but a lot of the turnovers come off opportunities that a lot of times you see on film or the fans see on TV when you're like, 'Well, that's just a drop.'"

So now he believes the likes of cornerbacks Charles Wood or Floyd Marcis and safeties Hershey McLaurin, Davis Mallinger and a currently injured Saint McLeod or new transfer Jasir Cox can make the plays that were just missed a year ago.

"Look at a guy like Hershey. The one thing when you watch films is that he can find the ball," Lesley said. "If they can locate naturally and have all the intangibles with it, then things don't have to be perfect, which they seldom are. They can erase a mistake."

Then throw in transfer Lee Kpogba at middle linebacker for the departed Josh Chandler-Semedo and you have more the look they want.

"Kpogba, I think he has bright future," head coach Neal Brown said. "He runs and we needed speed at that spot."