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."
