By Keenan Cummings
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia football team currently has 16 commitments in the 2021 recruiting class, and you can expect the majority of those prospects to be on campus in about a month to begin their college careers.
The expectation is the bulk of this class will be early enrollee prospects in order to get a jump start on their development on and off the field. It’s a practice that is becoming more and more commonplace across the college football landscape, as prospects are leaving behind winter and spring sports, as well as their closing months of high school, to get into a college football program.
The benefits are obvious as it allows players to not only develop physically in the weight room, but provide them with the social adjustment that comes with the jump to college.
The Mountaineers have always brought in prospects at the midterm and that has been no different under head coach Neal Brown since he arrived in 2019, but this year, due to the abnormal circumstances, the total number that take advantage of it should be higher than ever.
Last year, in the 2020 cycle, the Mountaineers had five scholarship players enroll at the midterm in junior college prospects defensive lineman Quay Mays and defensive back Jackie Matthews, as well as quarterback Garrett Greene, wide receiver Reese Smith and safety Jairo Faverus.
That total is right around average when it comes to what WVU has done in recent classes on that front, but you can essentially double that number this year.
“We will have probably more mid-year guys than we’ve had the last two years,” Brown said. “I don’t know traditionally, but we’ll have double digits.”
With so many spring sports seasons in-flux in different areas of the nation, getting enrolled and hitting the ground running in college isn’t the worst idea. It doesn’t mean everybody will be on campus at the turn of the New Year, but a sizeable chunk should be joining the football program in a few short weeks.
The list will surely change between now and when it’s time for prospects to enroll, but a sizeable chunk of the class has indicated they are looking into arriving on campus in January.
Among those are Birmingham (Ala.) quarterback Will Crowder; Stockholm (Sweden) tight end Victor Wikstrom; Jackson (Ohio) tight end Treylan Davis; Miami (Fla.) bandit linebacker Ja’Corey Hammett; Germantown (Md.) wide receiver Kaden Prather; Auburndale (Fla.) safety Aubrey Burks; Massillon (Ohio) athlete Andrew Wilson-Lamp; Viera (Fla.) athlete Davis Mallinger; Hoschton (Ga.) defensive end Brayden Dudley; Philadelphia (Pa.) safety Saint McLeod; and Finland defensive lineman Edward Vesterinen.
If that holds serve, that is 11 of the 16 total commitments, and that could even increase further.
This year has forced many adjustments when it comes to the realm of recruiting, so it makes sense that enrollment would follow the same path.
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