Is the Plan to Play Everyone? Darian DeVries Hesitant About Redshirts

West Virginia head coach Darian DeVries discusses his thoughts on redshirting players.

Schuyler Callihan | Oct 11, 2024

Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

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West Virginia Mountaineers

The days of multi-year development in college athletics are a thing of the past. With the new rules, kids are allowed to transfer without penalty which has created this "Wild Wild West" type of vibe.

Not only did you have to sit out a full season when transferring, but in most cases, you would not be allowed to transfer to another program within the conference. Obviously, that's no longer the case as we've seen several notable intraconference transfers, including here at West Virginia.

First-year WVU head coach Darian DeVries was asked during his press conference on Thursday about his feelings toward the idea of redshirting players, specifically talking about true freshmen KJ Tenner, Jonathan Powell, and Abraham Oyeadier.

"We've actually redshirted a lot of guys during my time. It’s changing some because of the [transfer] portal, and now that players don’t have to sit out, there’s not that built-in redshirts. It's really hard when you have 13 guys on scholarship and all 13 guys are looking up at you wanting to play.

"In previous years, it’s been nice to have one or two guys that came in and they were transfers and they had to sit out so you didn’t have all 13 [looking at you], those two guys knew they were already sitting out.

"As a general rule, I try to leave it up to the kid. Before we start playing games, bring everybody in and kind of talk about where things are at, where I see them, what that role looks like, and then let them make those decisions. I’m never going to force a kid to redshirt. I want that to be their decision that they feel like that’s best for them."

Even if it's in a limited role, we'll probably see each of West Virginia's true freshmen play this season. That will likely be the case for most programs around the country as they try to keep kids happy and not have their minds on hopping into the portal.

Of the three, Powell is probably the closest to being Big 12 game-ready. He'll factor into the rotation and likely earn a larger role the deeper things get into the season. Oyeadier is more of a long-term project that will require patience from both parties and Tenner just needs to fill out his frame to be able to handle the physicality of the league.

One week from today, we will get our first look at these young freshmen along with the rest of the Mountaineers as they will host Charleston for an exhibition at 7 p.m. EST inside the WVU Coliseum. After the game, DeVries will have a couple of weeks to have redshirt conversations with his players before the regular season tips off on November 4th against Robert Morris.

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