Football Blog: Highs and Lows of Recruiting
February 04, 2015 05:43 PM | General
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| West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen reviews this year's signing class on Wednesday afternoon at the Milan Puskar Center. | |
| All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
Then, the atmosphere picked up later in the afternoon when Stafford, Va., wide receiver Gary Jennings announced during a news conference at his high school that he plans on making Morgantown, W.Va. his home for the next four years.
When it comes to recruiting, these dramatic swings of the pendulum take place just about everywhere else as well.
“I think that every coach likes the fact that it’s over with,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen, now overseeing his fifth signing day at WVU, said earlier today. “We don’t like the nervousness, the lack of sleep and just the anticipation of whether or not all of your hard work is going to pay off.”
For the most part, it seems West Virginia’s hard work did pay off. ESPN.com has West Virginia’s class rated 36th in the country, which is about where the Mountaineers’ recruiting classes are usually ranked.
West Virginia signed three four-star prospects this year according to ESPN.com, the highest rated player being Miramar, Fla., wide receiver Jovon Durante. Miramar, Fla., cornerback Tyrek Cole and Nassau Community College corner Rasul Douglas were the other two four-star prospects.
“Being able to go out and identify and recruit a better, more talented guy was important,” said Holgorsen. “We have five midterm guys and 17 or 18 more, which is going to put our number well above 85. We’ve got some decisions to make and some very healthy numbers and that’s the exciting thing; (we’re) building depth more than anything.”
Holgorsen pointed out that his team is going to have 71 scholarship players available for spring practice this year, which is more than what the Mountaineers had in 2011 during the regular year when they beat Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
“Our numbers are so healthy right now,” he pointed out.
Consequently, it will be a bonus if any of this year’s signees can come and earn playing time right away, says Holgorsen.
The vast majority of the 23 players in this year’s class are from bordering states or states that have traditionally been targeted by West Virginia in the past. Holgorsen said that was by design.
“We made the decision to kind of remove ourselves from Texas just a little bit. Once we were competing against all of the schools in Texas it made it a little bit harder to get that caliber of player that we needed in order to be able to compete in the Big 12,” said Holgorsen. “They are every bit as talented along the East coast, Florida and even up into the Northeast as well, so we decided to cut our teeth with the surrounding states and down into Florida, which is what made West Virginia great two decades ago.”
Because the scholarship numbers are so good right now, West Virginia was able to be a little more selective and go after some higher-profile players this winter.
“We’re not recruiting against some of the smaller schools along the East coast like we used to be when we were in the Big East,” noted Holgorsen. “Now it’s all about competing against the Big Ten, competing against the ACC, competing against the SEC and we even started recruiting against the Big 12 in Florida.
“It’s a little easier selling that brand just because for three years a lot of these kids have been here for (ESPN) GameDay and they see 62,000 screaming fans that are passionate about Mountaineer football and then our the opponents have name recognition. They are nationally ranked. The TV screen is doing wonders for us,” he added.
There are a couple of key areas Mountaineer fans will be paying attention to this spring. One is outside receiver where Kevin White and Mario Alford have graduated, and the other is quarterback, where Holgorsen now has five scholarship guys this spring to choose from.
Two of the five, freshmen Chris Chugunov and David Sills, are already enrolled in school and will be competing for a starting job this spring. Holgorsen said the three holdovers and the two newcomers are going to get equal attention when they get on the field.
“This is the first spring I’ve had with more than two scholarship quarterbacks. We have numbers. We have depth and we’re going to have competition,” Holgorsen said. “I’m excited to watch those guys develop and see who surprises. We’ve got five options and we will play ball and see who rises to the top.”
The other key area to keep an eye on is wide receiver where Holgorsen says West Virginia is losing roughly 90 percent of last year’s production from the outside receiver position.
“We are pretty similar to where we were two years ago (when Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey went to the NFL),” he said. “The guys who develop quickly are the ones who will get on the field.”
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