MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia senior safety JoVanni Stewart is the latest upperclassman to possibly take advantage of the four-game NCAA redshirt rule, which was established last season.
A team spokesperson confirmed Thursday afternoon that Stewart will not play Saturday against Texas due to “personal reasons,” and coach Neal Brown also confirmed the same on his weekly radio show Thursday.
“He’s not going to play this week,” Brown said. “We’ll probably have more on that next week.”
Stewart has started all four games at the spear safety position and has made 17 tackles.
Last season, Stewart was thrust into an outside linebacker role because of injury issues that plagued the Mountaineers. At 5-foot-8 and 196 pounds, he was undersized as a linebacker, but appeared to be a better fit for the spear safety position in Vic Koenning’s defensive scheme.
The redshirt rule allows players to play in up to four games in a season and still be able to redshirt. Stewart is eligible to do this — whether it’s at West Virginia or somewhere else remains to be decided. He is currently not in the NCAA transfer portal.
Kwantel Raines, a highly-recruited safety from Pittsburgh, is Stewart’s backup. He has two tackles and a forced fumble this season.
“We feel good about Kwantel Raines, Tykee Smith and Dante Bonamico,” Brown said. “Tykee Smith is one of these guys. … We scrimmaged four times in the bye week with younger guys and he just stood out. I’ve got big expectations for him.”
