WVU football: Mountaineers struggling with secondary

The West Virginia Mountaineers are ranked dead-last in passing defense in the FBS this year. With two freshman playing at cornerback, the Mountaineers have allowed 41 pass plays of 20 yards or more entering Saturday's game against the TCU Horned Frogs. In an interview with Mike Casazza of the Charleston Daily-Mail, Defensive backs coach Daron Roberts acknowledged that cornerbacks can be a bit slower to develop:

"It's a difficult position to mature quickly at," Roberts said. "That's absolutely not an excuse, but they are developing. I can't make a prediction and start calling them the next Brandon Hogan and Keith Tandy, but the questions we'll get in two years will be more, 'Wow, aren't you happy you've got two experienced corners?'

Cornerbacks Nana Kyeremeh and Ricky Rumph have not recorded an interception this season which isn't good considering that starting cornerback Brodrick Jenkins may not be available to play against TCU because he's still recovering from knee surgery. Against the Kansas St. Wildcats, the secondary allowed quarterback Collin Klein to set personal bests for passing yards and touchdowns. Kyeremeh knows that they were tested:

"I think they were trying to throw on us to test the secondary and see what we can do," Kyeremeh said. "For a few days after the game, I was thinking that was a running team that threw all over us."

The game between the two teams is scheduled for a 3 p.m. kickoff from Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, W.V. The game will be broadcast nationally on Fox.