(Photo by Ben Queen – USA Today)
Things are about to get very fun, very soon in Morgantown.
With Sean Mahone announcing that he will be returning to the Mountaineers in 2021, yesterday, West Virginia will bring back all but three key pieces to their defense next season. Only losing Darius Stills, Tony Fields, and Dylan Tonkery, the majority of the defensive production for the Gold and Blue in 2020 will be right back on the field in 2021.
Why is this so significant? Well, it’s quite simple, really. The Mountaineers fielded what was easily the best defense in the Big 12 last season. Finishing atop the conference in virtually every category, they even wrapped up the year with the best total defense among Power Five institutions.
The returning product on the field, as well as the carryover with Jordan Lesley and Jahmile, will provide the Mountaineers with much of the same defensive spark that they had in 2020. It is because of this that we believe the rest of the Big 12 must be on high alert for West Virginia in 2020.
The pieces are there for this program to be successful, and Neal Brown has his team ready for a major breakthrough because of the outstanding defense and a solid running game. Once that is accompanied with a schedule that sees three of the top four Big 12 teams travel to Morgantown next season, everything is set up perfectly for this dark horse to emerge from the Mountain State.
Watch out, Big 12….the Mountaineers are built to compete, and they are a lot closer than one may think.
Let’s Go Mountaineers
