McLaurin hopes experience will help bolster his confidence level on the field

"My problem was I wasn't playing fast or confident," the Friendship, Mississippi native said as fall camp worked through its first week at WVU. "Now I can do that and just play football and be physical. Last year I kind of got away from myself. I wasn't confident, but I feel like now I know what I have to do. I just need to be myself."

McLaurin will be adjusting to another role, moving down to the spear position, which is also manned by another player, Lance Dixon, who also happened to have moved to the spot from linebacker in the mid-year last season. The duo brings different primary abilities to the spot, with McLaurin's speed and pass coverage talents complementing Dixon's run support. Each can cross over into the other areas, of course, but the combination is hoped to make the position the impact spot that it's designed to be in the WVU defense. Add in redshirt freshman Raleigh Collins, who saw action in four games in 2022 while preserving a year of eligibility, and the coaches hope they have a group with which they can meet any offensive challenge. That's similar to the play at Bandit, where Jared Bartlett and Tyrin Bradley hope to mesh their abilities to bring more production to one of the featured spots on the defense.

"This defense is built to help us play faster, and then with the people we have added in have really helped in," said McLaurin. "I feel like they and and the people we already have are making the defense play better. The [transfers], they are very smart, They know what they are doing, and how fast the game works. They know the speed of the game, and how to adapt, because they have played at a high level before."

Without question, the new faces are numerous, and a number of them will need to make contributions for this year's defense to be successful. From the mid-level back, Bradley (Abilene Christian), Montre Miller (Kent State), Keyshawn Cobb (Buffalo), Anthony Wilson (Georgia Southern) and Beanie Bishop (Minnesota) are already slotted in at spots on the two-deep, and are working to get to the comfort level that McLaurin is enjoying now. Of course, he also has the challenge of new techniques to assimilate at his new spot, as do players like Jairo Faverus, who moved down to the Will backer late last year.

McLaurin demonstrated his ability to play well with a mixture of physicality and athleticism last year both from scrimmage and on special teams. He led the Mountaineer coverage squads in tackles with seven, including five unassisted stops. He figures to be a big factor on both coverage teams again this season, and with his versatility could also be a fixture on different packages on the WVU defense.

Nowhere is the transient nature of the college game more illustrated than behind the front line of the WVU defense. At those eight positions, no fewer than 10 players are competing for significant time after starting their careers at other schools, so getting all of them into the comfort zone that McLaurin describes is one of the biggest tasks of fall camp. Without question, the level of success they are able to muster will be one of the biggest factors in the achievement level this team can reach in 2023.