This is probably Joe DeForset’s best interview session of note yet. He’s had worse and more combative moments after games and on Tuesdays of game weeks this season, much the same as he’s had better ones when the water wasn’t so choppy. But with the whitewater raging and the big waves crashing hard Saturday night, he did this with about as much calmness and control as you could have ever expected.

And I say that not because I mean to compliment his civility, but because this isn’t a situation that lends itself to either of those variables. It seems to me you can tell the guy is spent, furious, ashamed and aware all that surrounds him and his defense.

Not sure what he said there is worth anything in practice, though. His words aren’t going to get guys healthy or turn freshmen into juniors. We all understand and expect he’ll try to get things right. He doesn’t need to tell anyone that what’s been on the field is unacceptable. It sounds good. The sound bytes are inspiring for television and for radio. A few of the quotes are fit for print.

None of that changes things that I’m not certain can be changed: WVU’s defense is getting younger, no older. Players are getting hurt, not healthy. The Mountaineers are sliding in national rankings while others are rising. They are who they are and it’s going to be hard for them to be who they want to be.

Impossible? No, so long as who they want to be isn’t Alabama or Notre Dame or even a top 60 group. But they can get better — and this is the place where I’ll make the requisite statement that the offense has a role in all of those. We can choose from a pack of ways the offense hasn’t helped, but WVU’s defense, which isn’t forcing too many turnovers, has four in the past four games. The offense has turned that into no points. Bad form, particularly when part of the Big 12 plan was to force turnovers so that an opportune offense can capitalize.

Still, if defensive end Will Clarke gets healthy and finds a way to be as noticeable as he was last year, if cornerback Brodrick Jenkins can get back to where he was before he was hurt, if linebacker Jewone Snow can be on the field for more than a game, if safety Travis Bell can make that shoulder heal and return to solidify the defensive backfield, things can get better.

If you choose to believe WVU played two very good offenses and one national title contender … all separately … in Big 12 play, then you choose to believe the schedule, with TCU and Iowa State and Kansas, offers a little relief. (You also choose to ignore Oklahoma State and Oklahoma, but let’s keep moving.)

If you hold onto the idea the league takes some getting used to and WVU, after this open week, can catch its breath and make adjustments, then, yes, things will improve.

The reality is that it’s not so easy. WVU allowed 333 yards passing Saturday and completions on 20 of 23 passes — which is actually hard to do in skeleton drills. But the yardage dropped the average allowed from 364.67 yards per game to 360.14. WVU still dipped from No. 118  nationally in pass defense to No. 120, which is dead last.

Other teams are getting better. Opponents are getting the better of WVU. That’s a telling trend. Tackling gets better. Coverage gets better. Personnel groupings get better. You’re seven games and eight weeks into this now and all of those early-season issues remain problematic and WVU hasn’t found a way to erase them or at least over them up as of yet.

Sores on the first eight drives of the game, including touchdowns on the last seven, is almost unbelievable. You’d figure somewhere in there — and this is more than three full quarters and 54 plays — that you’d get a sack or knock a pass down, maybe even force a turnover to get a stop. There are no stops.

Twenty-one possessions the past two games, 14 touchdowns, two field goals (and one miss) and two punts. Two punts.

And here’s what blows my mind, a few days later.

The Mountaineers like to say they can’t get off the field, which is true, but also a little misleading. Go back again to the past two games. There have been 21 drives and 16 scores and 134 snaps. That’s an awful ratio, but here’s one that’s worse. WVU has forced 19 third downs. That’s it. Seven of the 14 touchdown drives didn’t even feature a third down.

So, yes, the Mountaineers will reevaluate everything and try to find a quick fix. Sounds good, but guess what? That’s not a new tactic. It’s new because the Mountaineers are talking about it, but they’ve been doing it. They used 26 players against Kansas State, and as large as that number is it still deserves an asterisk.

Clarke didn’t play much. Eric Kinsey, a true freshman who started for Clarke against Texas Tech, didn’t play. Snow, Jenkins and Bell are at least top-15 players. Figure WVU went all the way to No. 30 against Kansas State, but still played 26 players. That’s a big number — about a half a dozen more than normal.

I mean this as no offense to the coaches who have recruited and coached the players or the players who were out there, if even unexpectedly: WVU doesn’t have 26 defensive players that need to be out there against the BCS’s third-ranked team. That’s not an excuse. That’s the situation they’re in right now. Some of the young players probably deserve a shot over, or at least in tandem with, older players who continue to make mistakes, but that still means young players getting in late in the season. Not ideal.

DeForest and Patterson, Erik Slaughter and Daron Roberts and Steven Dunlap, they’re all running out of solutions while the problems accumulate.

“It’s hard because you want someone to step up and grab the team and say, ‘Come on, follow me,'” he said. “We don’t have that on defense. Until we do, we’ll struggle. It’s up to us as coaches to try and find leaders. It’s up to the kids to be leaders. You can’t always lead as a coach. You’ve got to have someone from within to pull with you.”