MORGANTOWN — It must have been pass-rusher Monday inside the halls of the Puskar Center as West Virginia added not one, but two top targets at the position to the 2022 commitment list.
Clearwater Academy (Fla.) defensive end Aric Burton and Atlanta (Ga.) Westlake defensive end Zion Young both selected the Mountaineers after spending last week on campus together on official visits.
Burton, at 6-foot-5 and 210 pounds, earned an offer from WVU at the Mountaineers’ one-day camp June 7. The explosive pass rusher, with an incredible first step, then returned for his official visit and saw enough to end his recruitment in favor of the Mountaineers.
A native of Germany, Burton will spend this fall playing at Clearwater, which is the same high school that Canadian import Akheem Mesidor played high school football. Burton is the latest product of PPI Recruits, a European group, to pick the Mountaineers in the past few recruiting cycles with the others being current players Victor Wikstrom, Jairo Faverus and Edward Vesterinen.
Burton also received offers from Arizona State, Minnesota and Kansas, along with plenty of interest from others, and is slotted to play either bandit linebacker or defensive end.
Young, at 6-foot-6 and 230 pounds, gives the Mountaineers serious length at the defensive end spot and has the frame to grow into much more at the college level. WVU was the first Power 5 school to offer Young and the coaching staff made him a priority from that point forward.
The Atlanta prospect is a true defensive end and has the length and versatility that the coaching staff craves at the position. Among other schools that offered were Illinois and Western Kentucky, while Tennessee, Florida State and many other schools were keeping a close eye on him.
Burton was primarily recruited by defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley, while Young developed a close connection with linebackers coach Jeff Koonz and defensive line coach AJ Jackson.
The pair represent the first commitments for WVU along the defensive line and give the program a total of 10 verbal pledges in the 2022 recruiting class.
The Mountaineers have now added five known commitments since the calendar flipped to June, and multiple other prospects are set to make college decisions in the weeks to come.
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