Zac Alley's accountability West Virginia's defensive failures is refreshing

The West Virginia Mountaineers are not doing well defensively in recent weeks, and the pressure is on Zac Alley.

After giving up 41 points and 609 yards against Oklahoma State, followed by 577 yards and 45 points against Iowa State, the Mountaineers are now ranked dead last in defense among Power 4 programs, and quite close to the bottom of all FBS teams. There are calls for Alley's job coming from the fans, and Alley admits that he hasn't slept well. But there is one refreshing aspect to how he's handling the scrutiny.

Zac Alley's response to his struggles is different from what we've come to expect from West Virginia's coaching staff in recent years

Alley admitted earlier this week that he thinks the team has the worst defense in the sport right now, and that things aren't working – though there was some profanity included in that condemnation of his own defense as well. He also said it will be easy for him to "dumb down" the defense, so to speak, and that continuing to do the same thing would be insanity.

This shows ones very important thing from Alley – accountability. He's not passing the blame off to someone else or making excuses. He's fully aware that things aren't going well, and is committed to changing it. As West Virginia fans spent six years watching Neal Brown and his staff refuse to take such accountability, that's really important to see.

Whether Alley does get it fixed or not, whether he ends up being the right man for the job in the long run – that's still to be determined. And we'll probably get answers soon on that front. But you have to appreciate his willingness to own up to his mistakes and have such a fiery attitude about it needing to be fixed.

That's not something you've been able to count on from West Virginia coaches in recent years, and it buys him some good will for at least a little bit of time while the Mountaineers work on fiing the problems with the defensive side of the ball. Hopefully, things will look better as the Mountaineers look to get back in the win column against Arizona on Saturday.

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