MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia head coach Neal Brown didn’t have many surprises during Wednesday’s National Signing Day, with all 16 of the Mountaineers’ commits coming in signing their Letters of Intent. And for Brown, a boring, low-number class is perfectly fine with him.
The COVID-19 pandemic changed the way recruiting works with no on-campus visits or coaches capable of visiting prospects in-home, and in the spring, Brown assumed decommits would run rampant with prospects committing to programs without visiting, including his own.
In the end, there was little movement with WVU’s 2021 class, and Brown admits he may have been a little overzealous about how COVID-19 would continue to affect recruiting, even through the fall.
“I made that comment, really without enough foresight,” he said. “Maybe I wished more than (anything). My hope was that recruiting would get back open and we would be able to host official visitors and our coaches would be able to go off campus, and that never materialized. I think if that did materialize, you would have seen a record number of decommits.”
With coaches unable to recruit off campus, it was difficult to evaluate prospects on the field outside of game film and speaking with high school coaches, but it’s doable. Where Brown and his staff feel they lacked is being able to see how players act and react in more personal situations.
“On the evaluation pieces, the one thing that you’re missing is some of it’s non-tangible,” Brown said. “You watch a kid practice, you can see how they win one-on-ones, what their first step looks like and it’s easier to tell in person than on video. What you miss is, what’s the communication like between teammates? Are they the first in line where they’re going? How do they take coaching? Are they viewed as a leader? Is the guy locked in?
It’s the non-tangible stuff that you miss when you’re not going to schools.”
Of the 16 signees, the final breakdown includes: Quarterback (1), running back (2), wide receiver (1), tight end (2), offensive line (2), defensive line (3), linebacker (1), defensive back (3) and athlete (1).
According to Rivals.com, four are rated four stars (wide receiver Kaden Prather, offensive lineman Wyatt Milum, and running backs Jaylen Anderson and Justin Johnson Jr.), while the remaining 12 are rated three stars.
There are still six spots remaining in the class, though Brown is waiting out several high school prospects who may sign in February, as well as transfers from other colleges. There are still needs he hopes to fill prior to the start of the 2021 season.
“We’re always going to try to put numbers in our offensive line and defensive line,” Brown said. “We’ll continue to add to those numbers, as well. At o-line, we added (Virginia transfer) Ja’Quay Hubbard and we’ll add one or two more before now and next August. Defensive backs, we’ll probably add one or two more of those before August, as well. We’ve got to continue to build offensive line-wise, for sure. We’ve got to continue to improve and make strides on the offensive line. We’ll never turn down a playmaker at wideout. On defense, the key area of need is at linebacker.
“Then, we’ve got to continue to build our depth at the defensive back position. And, just like I said for receiver, we’ll never turn down a true playmaker on the defensive line, either.”
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