With the portal opening on Monday and the slight dead time before bowl games and preparation, college teams across the nation have been strategically recruiting players, while also hoping to retain their own.
“Our hope is we can hold on to our main players,” West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said. “You’re going to lose some(players to the transfer portal) that’s just kind of, that’s just normal and you’re going to lose some, but we hope we can keep them all together.”
So far, safety Hershey McLaurin is the only Mountaineer to enter the portal who got significant playing time this year. Across the last two seasons, McLaurin made 89 total tackles with four passes defended and half a sack.
Other West Virginia players to enter the transfer portal this cycle include Jeremiah Aaron, Cortez Braham Jr., Ja’Shaun Poke, Davis Mallinger, Andrew Wilson-Lamp and Christion Stokes.
There are also players “committed to the (Country Roads)Trust for the 2024 season” who are said to be returning such as Wyatt Milum, Traylon Ray, Tomas Rimac and Josiah Trotter to name a few.
As far as obtaining players, West Virginia has already offered many wide receivers and defensive backs while also keeping their tabs on offensive linemen and linebackers in the portal as those are positions that will be lacking depth.
“Receiver: we’d like to take one proven guy and put him in that room. That’s the group that I think Bilal Marshall has done a tremendous job (with),” Brown said.
“Defensively, we need numbers at linebacker,” Brown said. “We’ve been really thin in the secondary and the secondary is going to be the primary area we’re going to focus on in the portal and we’d also like to add a pass rusher.”
With West Virginia heading into the Duke’s Mayo Bowl on Dec. 27, most players will wait to determine their future.
“I’m sure we’ll have a little activity after the bowl game as well [and] I’m pleased where it’s at, but it’s also very fluid and it’ll be fluid all the way until the portal closes,” Brown said.
