MORGANTOWN — There’s already plenty of football success associated with the name Trotter.
Jeremiah Trotter was a two-time all-pro linebacker for the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 2000s. He also played in four Pro Bowls and was inducted into the Eagles’ half of fame in 2016. His oldest son, Jeremiah Trotter Jr., was an All-American linebacker at Clemson and was selected in the fifth round of the most recent NFL Draft, by his father’s Eagles no less.
And then there’s the youngest son, WVU linebacker Josiah Trotter, who, like his father and older brother, is dead set on carving out his own legacy on the gridiron.
“I’m never going to be afraid to be in anyone’s shadow,” Trotter said after practice on Friday, “but I’m going to create a name for myself.”
Trotter, a redshirt freshman, had the opportunity to follow his brother and go to Clemson out of high school, where the two could potentially have played side-by-side last season.
Instead, Trotter chose West Virginia as a way to break out on his own.
“That’s one of the big reasons why I wanted to come here, to create a name for myself and do my own thing,” he said. “A lot of people probably thought I would follow him to Clemson, but I wanted to go somewhere else and create my own name and path.”
Trotter had the offers to go to almost any big-name school he could have wanted. Not just Clemson, but Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State and Texas A&M to name a few.
“I was never the recruit to look at logos or how big the school was,” Trotter said. “I wanted to go somewhere that really wanted me for me so I could fit within the scheme and make a big impact.”
WVU linebackers coach Jeff Koonz jumped into Trotter’s recruitment late, but connected with Trotter and eventually got him on a visit to Morgantown.
“I took a visit and fell in love with it,” Trotter admitted. “The scheme, the coaches, the area and how the fans treated the team. I loved seeing how Karl Joseph, Tavon Austin and a lot of those older dudes really made an impact on this team and this state. I want to be able to do that.”
Unsurprisingly, Trotter grew up in a household obsessed with football.
“There’s a bunch of memories of being in the backyard, being in the living room having to do tackling and hitting drills with each other,” Trotter said of his childhood with his brother. “It wasn’t too fun for me, probably was fun for him.”
While both are linebackers, Trotter and his brother are different styles of players. Trotter stands at 6-2 and weighs 238 pounds, two inches taller and about 10 pounds heavier than his older brother. Despite their differences, both sons have taken something from their father’s game.
“We all took something from my dad that he instilled in us,” Trotter said. “That physical part of the game and how they played back in the day, that’s something he did in his time and he really instilled in us.”
As expected of the son of an NFL player, Trotter appears to have all the tools to become the kind of impact player he wants to be.
“The combination of the size, power, explosiveness and athleticism with speed at 240 (pounds), it’s a combo where there’s not really anything that he does badly,” WVU defensive coordinator Jordan Lesley said.
It looked like Trotter was going to have the chance to start developing that legacy as early as last season.
“You want to go where you’re needed, not just where you’re liked,” Trotter said. “I knew they didn’t just like me, they really needed and wanted me. That’s something that really set them apart from everybody else.”
Impressive as an early enrollee last spring, Trotter appeared to be in line for significant playing time and maybe even start as a true freshman in 2023. A knee injury in camp not only took that chance away but wiped out his entire season.
“I wanted to make an impact right away, no matter what it was,” Trotter said. “I had the chance to compete for a starting job and it went sideways. I’ve got to restart and come back this year and make a statement.”
Trotter was fully healthy for the start of spring camp and he turned heads once again with his combination of size and athleticism and is penciled in as one of the Mountaineers’ starting linebackers.
“He’s a mixture of the new-school athletic linebacker and — I know he hates the comparison — being like his dad, a box linebacker,” defensive line coach Andrew Jackson said. “He’s ultimately aggressive and he’s a great communicator.”
With his goal being to chart his own path in the football world, it makes sense that Trotter doesn’t like always being compared to his father. But at the same time, Trotter understands how good his father was and understands any comparison is a compliment.
“I just look at him as dad, especially when I was younger,” Trotter admitted. “But growing up and watching more of his highlights and hearing from other players how great he was, it’s kind of like ‘dang.’”
