MORGANTOWN — It is unquestionable that West Virginia has reached its peak thus far in the Neal Brown era this season.
The Mountaineers are 8-4 heading into their Duke’s Mayo Bowl matchup against North Carolina on Dec. 27 (5:30 p.m./ESPN) with the chance to reach nine wins for the first time since 2016.
What’s exciting about this WVU team is that this season’s success wasn’t the product of a group of veterans all playing well at the end of their careers. Quite the opposite, as the Mountaineers relied on a plethora of underclassmen, particularly on offense.
And with a large chunk of that young core having committed to stay in Morgantown, the WVU coach staff has a strong selling point to try and convince 2024 and 2025 recruits to come join them.
“It’s a huge selling point,” offensive coordinator Chad Scott said Sunday. “That’s exactly what we’re selling.”
WVU’s trio of freshman skill players — receivers Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher and running back Jahiem White — combined to touch the ball 140 times this season, racking up nearly 1,300 total yards. All three have publicly committed to staying at WVU for next season.
“It’s going to be a special group,” Scott said. “What’s going to make it even more special isn’t the talent they have, but the camaraderie that they have. They want to go out there and perform well for each other, they want to go out and block on the perimeter for Jahiem to run the ball, he wants to do a great job in pass pro so they can get down the field.”
Add redshirt freshman receiver Hudson Clement to that group of youngsters and those numbers jump to over 150 touches and nearly 1,700 yards.
“With the chemistry they have on and off the football field, it’s really just the tip of the iceberg with those guys to see what they’re capable of doing,” Scott said. “We got a real good glimpse of it the last seven weeks of the season and we’re getting another good glimpse of it now while we’re going through bowl practices.”
It’s not just the players who saw significant time this year, either. Despite only carrying the ball 10 times this season, WVU coaches rave about freshman running back DJ Oliver’s combination of size and speed and his future potential.
Quarterback Garrett Greene, who has also committed to staying at WVU, is excited about the prospect of getting a full off-season of work in with the underclassmen.
“It’s super-important just for me to get a full off-season with those guys,” Greene said. “We’ll throw hundreds of times from January all the way through fall camp. Eventually, we’ll get to where I could probably close my eyes and know where they’re going to be and when they’re going to be there.”
There are several skill players verbally committed to WVU in the 2024 recruiting class who could sign with the team on National Signing Day on Wednesday. That includes receivers Brandon Rehmann (Philadelphia, Pa.) and Keyshawn Robinson (Shenandoah Junction, W.Va.), running back Diore Hubbard (Columbus, Oh.) and tight end Jack Sammarco (Cincinnati, Oh.).
“There’s me, Traylon and Rodney with (Greene) and then we got our 2024 class coming in,” White said. “We’ve got a nice little crew coming that’s going to give us big help.”
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