Defensive line Edward Vesterinen calls WVU home and didn't want to leave, boosting room of fresh faces
Defensive tackle Edward Vesterinen was one of the many players forced to make the difficult decision. However, for him, it wasn't too hard.
'After the season ended, I was uncertain on what was going to happen,' Vesterinen said at Big 12 Media Day. 'What am I going to do? I gave it a chance. I stayed for the spring, and I was happy with the spring, so I decided to stay.'
The spring wasn't the only factor leading to Vesterinen staying. Vesterinen also enjoys the small town and nature. He mentioned how he enjoys Monongahela River, Cheat Lake and Cooper's Rock.
Vesterinen is from Helsinki, Finland, which is over 4,000 miles from West Virginia. There's not much recruiting of football from Finland, so the only Power Four offer Vesterinen received was from WVU back in 2020. His other offer was from UMass.
'I wasn't heavily recruited coming up from high school in Finland,' Vesterinen said. 'West Virginia was my only Power Four offer, so I took it. It ended up being the best decision of my life.'
Now, Vesterinen becomes one of the only starters on WVU's defensive line to return for the 2025 season. Defensive coordinator Zac Alley's focus for the defensive line is to create more sacks and tackles for loss, which was a weakness under Brown.
Vesterinen leads Alley's attack, and when Vesterinen heard Alley was chosen as defensive coordinator, it gave Vesterinen even more reason to stay.
'He's definitely a mastermind on the defense,' Vesterinen said. 'When I was talking to Rich Rod in January, and he was telling me that we were getting a SEC defensive coordinator, that kind of got my hopes up. I was getting really excited. Once we landed Zac Alley, and now we've been through spring ball, and I see how he runs his defense. I'm really excited.'
To help Alley's goal of generating more sacks, Rodriguez and the DC went to work in the transfer portal. In the fall, Rodriguez made a splash and landed UTSA pass rusher Jimmori Robinson. Robinson had 10.5 sacks in 2025, which was eighth in all of college football. Most of the players ahead of him are now in the NFL. In the spring, Rodriguez added more depth to the defensive line with Missouri's Eddie Kelly Jr. and Incarnate Word veteran Devin Grant.
Vesterinen said it's taking some time learning all the new additions to the D-line room.
'There are so many guys that there aren't really many clicks, like, friend groups anymore,' Vesterinen said. 'Everybody's new and everybody has to make friends. That many new people creates an atmosphere of getting to know each other better.'
Despite it only being a couple of weeks since the new transfers, who were added in April, Vesterinen was able to list pretty much every player in his room.
Defensive line coach William Green spends the most time with the line and is witnessing the gelling of the new group. Green has his work cut out for him. There are high expectations for the defensive line, especially with the addition of highly anticipated Robinson, set to make an immediate impact.
Just two months before the season, it sounds like the defensive line group is in good shape, especially with WVU veteran Vesterinen back for 2025.
'I'm really happy for the D-line group,' Vesterinen said. 'Especially the new defensive line coach, William Green. I would call him a technician. He's a very developmental coach, who I'm very happy to have.'
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