MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia wide receiver Ali Jennings had to keep himself calm when teammate Winston Wright broke down the sideline on a kickoff last week at Baylor, eventually returning it 95 yards for a touchdown.
“It felt like I ran it back,” Jennings said. “I saw Winston get that ball, and I was like, ‘Let’s go, Winston, let’s go,’ and when he started running, I couldn’t do anything but just smile and laugh, and jump up for joy. I knew he was really excited because that was his first one and I got my first one early.
“If he returned the second one, I said I was going to run into the end zone with him, I didn’t care.”
With the coaching staff trying to figure out which freshmen are going to redshirt and how they will fit into the final four games, Jennings and Wright are two true freshmen that got that over with quickly. Jennings made his debut against N.C. State in the third game of the season, eventually catching a touchdown against the Wolfpack, while Wright did the same with an injury to Tevin Bush. Each have slowly earned more and more playing time as the year’s progressed, and it’s just the next step in the relationship for the duo.
While they aren’t roommates, Wright, as well as fellow freshmen Tykee Smith and Brandon Yates, hang out a lot at Jennings’ apartment, playing video games and watching film. Jennings was also quick to point out that he does the cooking with the other two do the eating.
“I’d say I’m a pretty good cook,” the Richmond, Va., native said. “I take care of my teammates.”
Wright and Jennings were the lone receivers in the 2019 recruiting class for the Mountaineers, so the pair seemed destined to go through the ups and downs together. So far, that’s been the case, and it even started before either decided to come to West Virginia.
“We were on a three-way phone call with the coach at Illinois and I didn’t even realize he was on there, too,” Jennings said of Wright. “Then all of a sudden, he followed me on Instagram, and we made our official visits to West Virginia at the same time.”
Wright, a native of Savannah, Ga., committed to WVU in July 2018, while Jennings did the same in December. Once Jennings announced he was going to West Virginia, Wright added him to the Instagram chat with the rest of the commits.
Usually, the rest would be history, but the coaching change from Dana Holgorsen to Neal Brown made Jennings take a stutter step before fully dedicating himself to WVU. With the early signing period, both Jennings and Wright signed in December, but Jennings had just made his decision the same day. Two weeks later, the coach he thought he was going to play for was now at Houston.
“There was a little nervousness because I didn’t know what was going on,” Jennings said. “I wasn’t hearing from anybody and all my family and coaches were just telling me to be patient through the process – everything is going to work out.”
Brown and assistant coach Chad Scott visited Jennings at his home in Richmond, and then Jennings made his second official visit to Morgantown. After talking with Brown, Jennings “got a good vibe” not only from him, but the rest of the coaches, so he decided to stick with it.
Through eight games, Jennings has 12 catches for 85 yards and a score, but perhaps his biggest highlight was a one-handed snag against Oklahoma, but it was called back for offensive pass interference on what appeared to be a bad call by the officials.
Wright has 13 catches for 72 yards, but his biggest impact was on the special teams home run against Baylor. Brown said Wright will continue to be the main kick returner the rest of the season.
Going through the grind together with Wright is something Jennings is happy to have.
“Winston and I push each other all the time – we’re always competing, even when we’re just playing a video game, we’re always in each other’s faces, driving each other,” Jennings said. “If one of us isn’t doing as good, we’ll come to the sideline and be like, ‘Yo, you’ve gotta come on.’
“We were freshmen, but now we don’t look at each other as freshman anymore. We look at it as this is our time and we need to take advantage of it.”
