As West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said, the bye week is a great time to evaluate freshmen.
One freshman who has stood out to Brown so far is true freshman quarterback Khalil Wilkins. Wilkins is the scout team quarterback and has surprised Brown with his playmaking, but his plays have sometimes backfired on him.
“I think that Khalil is super talented. And he has some wild plays. They go both ways like ‘Wow, that’s really good’ or ‘Wow, that’s really bad,'” Brown said.
While Khalil is down on the depth chart as a freshman, there is a lot of learning to be had and patience that comes along with that. Overall, Brown says he’s got the talent.
“He’s really talented. And so there’s going to have to be some patience there as far as getting him fundamentally where he needs to be and getting him where he understands kind of what defenses are going to do,” Brown said of Wilkins.
An area of Wilkins’ game that Brown has specifically been impressed with is his rushing ability. Brown said that Wilkins poses challenges for defenders and will continue to do so.
“He can really run, and he’s going to be a problem, and he’s a problem for our defense because he runs the scout team (offense), and he’s a problem,” Brown said.
Trying to convey Wilkins’ ability, Brown would reiterate his talent. He also reiterated there is learning and development to be done that comes with time.
“He’s really talented. We just got to get him honed in, and it’s really a learning (curve). And we knew there was going to be a learning period for him it wasn’t going to be immediate,” Brown said. “But from a talent perspective he’s an absolutely. He’s got talent.”
According to 247Sports, Wilkins was rated a three-star recruit and the No. 65 overall quarterback recruit in the class of 2024, coming out of Dr. Henry Wise in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. The 6-foot-3 dual-threat also held offers from Boston College, Marshall, Maryland and Pitt.
