It was a busy day over at the Puskar Center as four players announced their commitments to the West Virginia football program.
Three of those in Morgantown (W.Va.) University 2023 athlete Noah Braham, Chesapeake (Va.) Oscar Smith 2023 athlete Tory Johnson, Jr. and Port St. Lucie (Fla.) Treasure Coast 2023 defensive lineman Corey McIntyre are legacy prospects.
Braham, 6-foot-2, 225-pounds, is the son of former WVU offensive lineman Rich, and earned his scholarship offer earlier this week after a pair of impressive camp stops. The local product is being recruited as an athlete with the ability to bounce around to tight end or linebacker in the future.
The offer was extended by head coach Neal Brown himself and after a few days Braham was ready to end his recruitment and stay home for his college career.
Braham becomes the first product of the Morgantown High Schools to commit to the Mountaineers in several classes and is simply an old-fashioned football player.
“They like my effort and my ability to just play football,” he said.
Johnson, Jr., is the son of the former tight end of the same name and has held an offer from the program since impressing the coaching staff in camp last summer. The 6-foot-3, 207-pounder, has added considerable bulk to his impressive frame and is slotted to play the hybrid position for the program.
That would allow Johnson to create mismatches in the middle of the field out of the slot. He selected the Mountaineers over offers from Maryland, Pittsburgh and Virginia, among others. Tight ends coach Sean Reagan handled the bulk of his recruitment and it gives the program another player with ties.
McIntyre, Jr, 6-foot-4, 280-pounds, is the son of former Mountaineer Corey McIntyre and has been on the radar for the program since first receiving an offer last fall. After taking an official visit to Washington State, McIntyre came to Morgantown and saw all he needed to close the book on his recruitment.
The Rivals.com three-star prospect selected WVU over other offers from N.C. State, Pittsburgh, Washington State, Mississippi State and South Florida, among others. His pledge should round out the recruiting in this cycle on the interior defensive line.
The final known pledge came from Denver (N.C.) East Lincoln 2023 linebacker Ben Cutter who was the linebacker MVP of the Rivals Camp Series stop in Charlotte. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder, had been a priority of the WVU coaching staff after receiving a scholarship offer in May.
This past season Cutter racked up 158 tackles and simply has a knack for always being around the ball. Inside linebackers coach Jeff Koonz was the primary recruiter for Cutter.
According to social media there was another pledge that has yet to announce his intentions, but the current 2023 recruiting class continues to pick up momentum swelling to 16-known commitments at this time and ranking No. 14 nationally.
With the NCAA dead period set to take effect June 27 it means that prospects will not be able to have any face-to-face contact with coaching staffs or visit programs. That could lead to more dominoes falling in the coming weeks as WVU looks to piece together the rest of the group.
The final official visit weekend of the month of June has already proved to be a fruitful one for the WVU program and there still could be more to come.
By Keenan Cummings
TWEET @DomPostSports
