It's a Massive Month for WVU Football

Neal Brown has a busy few weeks ahead of him.

The 2023 regular season is over but the momentum can continue for the West Virginia Mountaineers with a solid month of player retention and recruiting. 

In today's world of college athletics, it's about year to year roster management rather than the multi-year build of a roster that we grew accustom to. You can't just let guys sit and develop for two-three years anymore. With the way the transfer rules are now set up, kids that get impatient can leave at the drop of a hat and play immediately at their next school.

Playing the young guys was not only something West Virginia wanted to do this season, but had to do. They weren't getting much production out of their receivers early in the season and when they began the transition to playing younger, Jeremiah Aaron and Cortez Braham Jr. stepped away from the team. Throughout the course of the season, we saw true freshmen Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher III become not only more involved in the offensive gameplan, but a huge part of its success.

Starting running back CJ Donaldson battled some nicks and bruises throughout the season, as did Justin Johnson Jr. This allowed for another true freshman, Jahiem White, to get an opportunity and boy, did he run with it...literally. 

Ray, Gallagher, and White are going to be a huge part of this program, assuming they stick around. Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, but for big-time college football teams, Christmas shopping season just began. 

On Monday, the transfer portal window opened and much of this week will be spent on player retention. The coaching staff has to essentially re-recruit the entire roster and in some cases, make sure there are NIL opportunities in place so that they don't get poached away by other programs. 

Those three freshmen aren't the only ones West Virginia will have to worry about, though. Backup quarterback Nicco Marchiol, tight end Kole Taylor, left tackle Wyatt Milum, and left guard Tomas Rimac will more than likely be guys of interest for other schools to illegally recruit, along with CJ Donaldson. It's up to them to ignore it, such as Zach Frazier did last offseason.

Per NCAA rules, schools cannot recruit players who are enrolled at another school. They are only permitted to do so with players who are officially in the transfer portal. But as we all know, everyone doesn't follow the rules and more often than not, they don't get caught for violating them.

Winning eight games is a huge step in the right direction for West Virginia. However, if they can retain most or perhaps all of its key contributors from the 2023 season, they will be in line for a special year next fall. With Oklahoma and Texas departing for the SEC, the Big 12 will be up for grabs. West Virginia can very much be a player in that title race, assuming everyone returns.

In addition to player retention, WVU will be looking to add to its roster via the portal in the coming weeks. Last December alone, the Mountaineers picked up CB Montre Miller, TE Kole Taylor, WR Devin Carter, WR Ja'Shaun Poke, S Keyshawn Cobb, and K Michael Hayes out of the portal. West Virginia may look to add to the offensive line to help replace Zach Frazier and Doug Nester, while defensively they could use some depth at linebacker and a starter or two in the secondary.

But that's not it. There's also the high school recruiting piece. The early signing period begins on December 20th and closes on the 23rd. During that timeframe, the Mountaineers will have signed the majority of its 2024 recruiting class. So while trying to re-recruit the roster and browsing the portal, WVU has to make sure they hold onto the commitments that they have.

In year's past, all of this pressure would be placed squarely on the head coach and his staff. The game has changed. Although the staff plays a big part in formulating the roster, so do the fans in a sense. The more donations to Country Roads Trust, the bigger the pot gets. 

Neal Brown Speaks on Future at WVU

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