W. V West Virginia University Football Team

At the 2:09 in the video below you see Cunningham make an outstanding tackle to knock Tennessee's Jalen Hurd back short of the first down. Cunningham had the benefit of being mentored by former Commodore Chris Marve, who ranks among the team's Top Ten tacklers. This season Marve moves from Defensive Graduate Assistance to Inside Linebackers Coach and will have more time to help share his knowledge with Nigel Bowden and the rest of inside linebackers. At 3:17 in the same video below, you see Zach read the play perfectly before keeping his outside containment to force the runner back inside and limit the Vols to a short

Heading into the season, an area of concern for WVU was its secondary but rest assured

However, the Mountaineers responded with five runs in the top of the third to take a commanding 9-2 advantage.

The Buffaloes will counter the top-ranked defense in the nation, giving up a mere 160 YPG. However, the two teams they played are among the worst in the nation on offense. Plus, Michigan is no Idaho State. They are loaded for bear with some of the best "blue chip" players in the nation.

In a quarterback heavy conference, the Mountaineers will need Howard to be consistent if they hope to compete for a Big 12 Championship and

The Hilltoppers will host Kings Mountain (6-2, 3-2), which they have beaten two straight years. Kings Mountain is much better than a year ago. The biggest reason is that Jair McCluney has been tough to stop at running back. Jake Merchant and Kavin Mosely lead the wide receiver corps for Kings Mountain.

The redshirt senior missed the first game of the season due to a one-game suspension but after his return he made the most of his final year at West Virginia University and helped his team in the process.

After two weeks of play into the season, West Virginia University's secondary has been far from impressive.

Though the Aggies have fallen short of expectations this season, spending much of the season in the bottom half of Mountain West Conference standings, the freshman’s play has been a silver lining for the program, and a source of optimism moving forward for Utah State faithful.

WVU's defense smothered the Knights in the first half, allowing the Mountaineers to take a 43-20 lead at the half.

The Mountaineers know how to stop opponents in the red zone. They rank ninth in the country in touchdown percentage against (42.9 percent).

Coach Graham does not have the luxury of assuming his team will be so fortunate to come up with so many turnovers this season. Instead, he is going to have to hope that the return of three top defensive players will bring the unit much needed experience and leadership. Among the players returning are SR DB Jordon Simone, SR LB Antonio Longino and JR LB Salamo Fiso. Simone was second on the team in tackles will 100 while Longino added 94 tackles and Fiso accounted for 83 of them to go along with 3.5 sacks. The Sun Devils will have to find a reliable defensive lineman to replace Marcus Hardison who led the team in sacks with

Bowden called the defensive signals before his concussion and out tackled Zach Cunningham in 2014. This pair of inside linebackers that combined for 145 tackles in 2014 should be one of the best in the conference. Cunningham picked up a lot of the slack left by Bowden's injury in 2015, crushing the team in total tackles. When these two hit the field together again after multiple years in Coach Mason's defense, combined with an experienced secondary, its hard to imagine a scenario in which the 'Dores defense drops off dramatically from its 2015 performance.

“Going to the game we knew how good they were last year,” Edwards said. “We knew offensively they were very good but they struggled defensively. Our game plan was just to get the ball over their block and let their Defenders make the mistakes.”

Freshman right fielder Darius Hill and junior first baseman Jackson Cramer both had two hits for the Mountaineers (28-19).