West Virginia running back CJ Donaldson took the league by storm last season.
After switching from tight end to running back during the summer and in fall camp, Donaldson’s impact was felt immediately in week one against Pitt. In that game, Donaldson rushed for 125 yards on seven rushes, while also finding the end zone. Donaldson also was able to block a punt in that game.
That would set up a strong freshman campaign for the Miami native. Donaldson would play in seven games finishing with 87 rushes for 526 yards and 8 touchdowns. Donaldson’s season would be cut short due to multiple injuries including a concussion mid-season as well as a season-ending lower leg injury which required surgery.
Despite only playing in seven games, Donaldson seemed to have the opportunity to leave West Virginia. With the new transfer portal rules, as well as Name, Image, and Likeness, Donaldson could have taken his talents elsewhere.
Donaldson talked with the Country Roads Trust about his decision, and what he thinks of West Virginia for this upcoming season.
“This school believed in me before any other school did,” Donaldson said. “In addition to that, my original coach when he was here, when I signed, he left the next week. I didn’t commit to just a coach, I committed to a program. This program fits me socially, on the field and [in] academics.”
Former West Virginia tight ends coach is who recruited Donaldson. Trickett left WVU for a position at USF, and is now at Coastal Carolina.
As for this upcoming season, Donaldson feels this West Virginia team can be a lot better than their 5-7 finish to 2022. Donaldson says it starts with discipline as this team showed flashes last year.
“The expectation for 2023 is just to show that we can be a consistent football team,” Donaldson said. “We’ve shown that we can win against great teams and we’ve shown that sometimes that we don’t make the right play during the big times in the game. But we also have a very young team. I feel like we’ve grown since 2022 season and going into the 2023 season it will be a very high jump as you could say from the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball.”
