During the offseason, it was announced that West Virginia would experiment with sophomore and former four-star recruit Rodney Gallagher playing both ways.
Gallagher switched his number from No. 2 to No. 24 to play on both sides of the ball (Aubrey Burks wears No. 2 on defense). After taking reps on offense and defense, Gallagher is set to play both in the season opener vs. No. 8 Penn State, which WVU head coach Neal Brown confirmed.
“Rodney (Gallagher) has really come along. Rodney’s going to play both ways for us on Saturday,” Brown said Thursday during his radio show at Kegler’s.
During his freshman season in 2023, Gallagher had 10 catches for 74 yards playing receiver. He added another 87 yards on 15 attempts rushing the ball.
“He’s got a knack and this is kind of how he approached this. He played defense in high school,” Brown said. “You saw some things on film where he really moved fluid.”
Brown said that during the offseason, the “experiment” began small, with Gallagher getting limited reps each day on defense before gradually building that up. Now, he fully expects Gallagher to play both ways Saturday against Penn State.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out for Gallagher and West Virginia. As Brown and Tony Caridi mentioned, the Mountaineers haven’t had a player play both sides of the ball in a very long time.
