--West Virginia head coach Neal Brown spoke about the effort that the staff had to put in on getting this class together and that's not just the assistant coaches either as it trickles down to Drew Fabianich and Trey Neyer as well as the others that work under them. The Mountaineers focused on a six-hour radius and have 16 players from the 22 from that window.
--Jack Sammarco, Elijah Kinsler, Khalil Wilkins, Israel Boyce, Zae Jennings, Nate Gabriel and Obinna Onwuka will all enroll early.
--The needs were what they were and you try to take care of some of them from the portal. But most of these players they recruited for a really long time. Even DayDay Farmer they recruited for the past two years. The needs at the start are what they maintain and if something happens in the fall they go through the portal.
--Each case is unique and when a kid makes a initial decision it's different. West Virginia was interested in Farmer all along. He will start his career in the slot and Brown, Chad Scott and Bilal Marshall all had really good relationships with him. The track record at the slot has been strong for Brown as a coach and they set out to remake the wide receiver room. It's been a process to get that room to where they work, they have a good attitude, there is good energy and they're good teammates with different types of players. Marshall has done a great job in that room handling that room as they play true freshmen and they do a lot.
--Brown has a much better feel for who they can get and who is the right fit. You have to recruit a big area here and you can be spread too thin at times. There are areas they need to continue to work on. They had the right idea at the beginning, but the execution might not have been the best. This is a product of what the coaches have learned over the past five years. Brown is comfortable knowing who will be successful in the program. He says no a lot more than he used to if he doesn't have a good feel when they're here or when he goes and sees them. Brown is less likely to take a chance unless they have a great room because the quality of the room will take over.
--Dom Collins was excited and it's going to be a process for him. He's got great speed and he's improved a lot as football player but he has to add some weight. He could help as a returner early, but he needs to continue to develop as a receiver. He wants to be here and that matters.
--Brown didn't know if he would have that many starters on offense, but he always felt that if you could have 20-25 scholarship players being West Virginia products that meant that a quarter of the roster understood what the program meant to the state and they could really set the standard and communicate that to the team. You have to identify them early and recruit them. They won't get all of them, there was one, maybe two that they didn't get and that's going to happen but over the course of the five years here they've had a high percentage that has the potential. They have to continue to recruit the state and then use the walk-on program.
--Bilal Marshall can be an elite recruiter and he's going to continue to rise. He does a great job from a teaching stadpoint and can relate, he is an extremely effective communicator and has a big picture. He does a great job. He was the one that really did a lot of the finishing on Farmer to get him to sign today. Blaine Stewart is transitioning he hadn't spent anytime in college. When he's in front of the player there is nobody better that can sell West Virginia and what it means. He will continue to learn the other things.
--A lot of times what happens is recruiting is if you get a quarterback committed early they handle the recruiting but if you're being more patient you need some strong personalities on each side of the ball. Early in the process, they got Onwuka who was vocal and then Kyle Altuner who was the same. Both of them committed early in the summer, stuck with it and were vocal and supportive.
--You have to have honest communication, be who you are and what he means by that is playing time is all about trust to get the most out of them. A lot of times what happens is in recruiting the individual that recruits the player is different than the guy that coaches him. They try to be their friend and they're different when they get on campus. Brown tries to look at it from the 16-18 year old's perspective if things change it would be hard to trust that coach. Be the same person recruiting that you are coaching them which sometimes it's effective and sometimes it's not but it's honest and let's the coaches know. You have to be careful because sometimes these guys are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for. You have to be up front and you can't hide anything.
--Brown was intentional to get to where they're at offensive line wise with high school recruiting and transfers. Now, you do the same thing from a defensive line standpoint and it was high school. With this class, they've got their linebacker room where they've got it. Now the focus is defensive backs with more quality depth and players. You have to be intentional with fixing the rooms.
--What they're trying to do is they've beena 3-4 defense and that's what they want to continue to be moving forward. It's a better fit. There are certain body types they can recruit and some of the bigger ends they feel like they can get them there. They want two box linebackers and they want to add to those. And you want them bigger when they can grow. You want the ability to match personnel to play a SAM linebacker to the field and another DB to add in nickel in the future. West Virginia is trying to get speed and length and in the winter they will move those pieces around a lot and try to figure out what the best position is for them. Still playing a bandit. Different body types, bigger guys, run oriented teams and some guys that can rush the passer.
--West Virginia has six transfers right now and that's going to be in the 10ish range when they start in January. Now, the attention turns to adding quality walk-ons from the state of West Virginia and other places and with the new calendar the 2025 class they'll spend the month of January working on that.
--The rules have changed and if you have any question you don't sign them now because from a numbers standpoint you're taking a risk. You see less risk taking because there are so many more available guys. A couple of our guys still need to finish the senior year strong but since COVID-19 the test score isn't a factor. It's a multitude of reasons but he feels very confident they'll get it done.
--How you end the recruiting process is important. He doesn't take any of it personally. They have a recruiting database and you used to flush it but now it stays active because they can be in the portal down the line. When somebody goes in the portal the first thing is do they have a relationship and if they were here on campus and if they are you have a much better chance. Or if they have a working knowledge of who you are and what the facilities are like. If they don't think they're a fit in high school they won't look at them. How they end stuff matters.
--Defensive backs, an edge guy and have to be the right guy offensively on receiver or offensive line and a multiple year tight end.
--Jack Sammarco, Elijah Kinsler, Khalil Wilkins, Israel Boyce, Zae Jennings, Nate Gabriel and Obinna Onwuka will all enroll early.
--The needs were what they were and you try to take care of some of them from the portal. But most of these players they recruited for a really long time. Even DayDay Farmer they recruited for the past two years. The needs at the start are what they maintain and if something happens in the fall they go through the portal.
--Each case is unique and when a kid makes a initial decision it's different. West Virginia was interested in Farmer all along. He will start his career in the slot and Brown, Chad Scott and Bilal Marshall all had really good relationships with him. The track record at the slot has been strong for Brown as a coach and they set out to remake the wide receiver room. It's been a process to get that room to where they work, they have a good attitude, there is good energy and they're good teammates with different types of players. Marshall has done a great job in that room handling that room as they play true freshmen and they do a lot.
--Brown has a much better feel for who they can get and who is the right fit. You have to recruit a big area here and you can be spread too thin at times. There are areas they need to continue to work on. They had the right idea at the beginning, but the execution might not have been the best. This is a product of what the coaches have learned over the past five years. Brown is comfortable knowing who will be successful in the program. He says no a lot more than he used to if he doesn't have a good feel when they're here or when he goes and sees them. Brown is less likely to take a chance unless they have a great room because the quality of the room will take over.
--Dom Collins was excited and it's going to be a process for him. He's got great speed and he's improved a lot as football player but he has to add some weight. He could help as a returner early, but he needs to continue to develop as a receiver. He wants to be here and that matters.
--Brown didn't know if he would have that many starters on offense, but he always felt that if you could have 20-25 scholarship players being West Virginia products that meant that a quarter of the roster understood what the program meant to the state and they could really set the standard and communicate that to the team. You have to identify them early and recruit them. They won't get all of them, there was one, maybe two that they didn't get and that's going to happen but over the course of the five years here they've had a high percentage that has the potential. They have to continue to recruit the state and then use the walk-on program.
--Bilal Marshall can be an elite recruiter and he's going to continue to rise. He does a great job from a teaching stadpoint and can relate, he is an extremely effective communicator and has a big picture. He does a great job. He was the one that really did a lot of the finishing on Farmer to get him to sign today. Blaine Stewart is transitioning he hadn't spent anytime in college. When he's in front of the player there is nobody better that can sell West Virginia and what it means. He will continue to learn the other things.
--A lot of times what happens is recruiting is if you get a quarterback committed early they handle the recruiting but if you're being more patient you need some strong personalities on each side of the ball. Early in the process, they got Onwuka who was vocal and then Kyle Altuner who was the same. Both of them committed early in the summer, stuck with it and were vocal and supportive.
--You have to have honest communication, be who you are and what he means by that is playing time is all about trust to get the most out of them. A lot of times what happens is in recruiting the individual that recruits the player is different than the guy that coaches him. They try to be their friend and they're different when they get on campus. Brown tries to look at it from the 16-18 year old's perspective if things change it would be hard to trust that coach. Be the same person recruiting that you are coaching them which sometimes it's effective and sometimes it's not but it's honest and let's the coaches know. You have to be careful because sometimes these guys are a lot more intelligent than people give them credit for. You have to be up front and you can't hide anything.
--Brown was intentional to get to where they're at offensive line wise with high school recruiting and transfers. Now, you do the same thing from a defensive line standpoint and it was high school. With this class, they've got their linebacker room where they've got it. Now the focus is defensive backs with more quality depth and players. You have to be intentional with fixing the rooms.
--What they're trying to do is they've beena 3-4 defense and that's what they want to continue to be moving forward. It's a better fit. There are certain body types they can recruit and some of the bigger ends they feel like they can get them there. They want two box linebackers and they want to add to those. And you want them bigger when they can grow. You want the ability to match personnel to play a SAM linebacker to the field and another DB to add in nickel in the future. West Virginia is trying to get speed and length and in the winter they will move those pieces around a lot and try to figure out what the best position is for them. Still playing a bandit. Different body types, bigger guys, run oriented teams and some guys that can rush the passer.
--West Virginia has six transfers right now and that's going to be in the 10ish range when they start in January. Now, the attention turns to adding quality walk-ons from the state of West Virginia and other places and with the new calendar the 2025 class they'll spend the month of January working on that.
--The rules have changed and if you have any question you don't sign them now because from a numbers standpoint you're taking a risk. You see less risk taking because there are so many more available guys. A couple of our guys still need to finish the senior year strong but since COVID-19 the test score isn't a factor. It's a multitude of reasons but he feels very confident they'll get it done.
--How you end the recruiting process is important. He doesn't take any of it personally. They have a recruiting database and you used to flush it but now it stays active because they can be in the portal down the line. When somebody goes in the portal the first thing is do they have a relationship and if they were here on campus and if they are you have a much better chance. Or if they have a working knowledge of who you are and what the facilities are like. If they don't think they're a fit in high school they won't look at them. How they end stuff matters.
--Defensive backs, an edge guy and have to be the right guy offensively on receiver or offensive line and a multiple year tight end.
