West Virginia's defense is full of new faces in 2026, but there are a few returners who will be playing in elevated roles, such as linebacker Ben Cutter.
The senior from North Carolina has pretty much been through it all during his career in Morgantown, experiencing the success of a nine-win season, seeing his defensive coordinator get fired in the middle of the year, his head coach get fired, and missing out on a bowl game in a miserably long 2025 campaign.
He admitted during a recent appearance on 3 Guys Before the Game that last year's defense struggled to push through adversity and was a big reason for the lack of consistency. This year's group, according to his own evaluation, is a complete 180 as far as mental toughness is concerned.
"I think that we are in a very good spot defensively, for this season. A lot better than last year. A lot better players and a lot better character from the defense," he stated. "Last year, we didn't have as many leaders stepping up. We had a lot of guys that could play really good, but whenever things got tough, some of them weren't the highest character. And when you have that many guys that can't withstand a hard game of go through hardships and stay level-headed, it kind of brings some of the guys that are level-headed down with them. This year, we have so many guys that are leaders, high character, can really step up and lead whenever things start getting tough. We're going to have the guys that are kind of half in, half out, rise to that occasion, and we're going to bring them up."
Tony Caridi asked him how many "dawgs" that side of the ball has, and he rattled off several names, some of which have been talked about a bunch since spring practice.
"I would say Geimere Latimer and Andrew Powdrell are two of those guys. They are completely leading that secondary. He (Powdrell) is the strongest pound for pound, I've ever played with or seen. He's elite. He power cleaned 345. Ashton Woods is another one of those guys. Tyler Stolsky, Jason Hall. On the d-line, Corey McIntyre is a dawg. He has really stepped up this year. Nate Gabriel is a really good player."
He also gave some positive reviews of the Mountaineers' newly retooled offensive line.
"They are way more disciplined this year. They line up fast, firing off the ball every snap. Really well-coached and they're mean too. We got a lot of mean guys. They are going to be a hard group to play against. Four quarters of that...people are going to be hurting."
It is still to be determined just how much better this team will be, but if there is one thing we can count on, it's that they will be more competitive and much closer to the vision that Rich Rodriguez has for this program.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/westvirginia as Ben Cutter Says WVU Has 'A Lot Better Players' and 'A Lot Better Character' on Defense .
