Upon the end of spring practice, one of the focuses for West Virginia football was to retain their roster. The Mountaineers felt the first hit of the offseason come on Monday when running back Tony Mathis entered his name into the transfer portal.
While the loss of Mathis is not optimal, it isn’t the biggest surprise that the Mountaineers are parting ways with one of their running backs. Mathis’ departure makes sense and even after, WVU still has a lot of potential out of that room.
When you lose your leading rusher from last year, who totaled 562 rushing yards and five touchdowns, it doesn’t seem to bode well for the future of your football team. For West Virginia though, it helps build a level of certainty and gives more defined answers on ballcarriers for next season.
Mathis totaled 30.3 percent of all rushing attempts by WVU last season, while accounting for 20.8 percent of West Virginia’s rushing touchdowns and 27.3 percent of yards gained on the ground. When comparing Mathis to the likes of CJ Donaldson, and Justin Johnson, the production levels weren’t the same.
Donaldson, who missed five games last year due to injury carried the ball 48 less times than Mathis last year but finished with only 36 less rushing yards. Donaldson also had three more touchdowns. Johnson played in all 12 games for WVU last year and had 132 less yards on 37 less carries than Mathis. Then there was Jaylen Anderson who broke out in WVU’s final game against Oklahoma State last year and averaged 7.9 yards per carry on 35 rushing attempts.
When you factor in the level of production from the other returning running backs, it makes sense why Mathis entered his name into the portal.
On top of the returners are two newcomers to WVU’s backfield. The evidence is there that head coach Neal Brown will use a freshman running back like he did with Donaldson last year. He might have another level of success with Jahiem White.
In WVU’s spring game, White had seven carries for 91 yards and a touchdown. The Mountaineers rushed for 173 yards on 28 carries between the five running backs mentioned during the spring game. Mathis had three carries for 10 yards.
That type of usage seems to point to the fact of one entering the portal.
Mathis is the biggest name to enter the transfer portal for WVU so far since the new window opened. He will graduate from WVU this spring and then will have two years of eligibility remaining. Mathis will get to have a chance to go somewhere and be the lead back, while WVU will get to showcase their younger talent in the running back room.
