Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Brown Returning WVU to its Recruiting Sweet Spots
December 18, 2019 06:01 PM | Football, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Years ago, when Don Nehlen was first building the football brand that helped West Virginia get into the Big 12 – the Flying WV and all those tough guys fueled by a passionate fan base always craving a winner – he started out with a ballpoint pen and an old Rand McNally map.
He'd get that map out and draw a big concentric circle around Morgantown, West Virginia. He'd start up top above Pittsburgh and continue the arc around Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. Then he'd angle the pen down toward the southern part of West Virginia and into Southwestern Virginia.
His arc continued over into Northern Virginia and on up the I-95 corridor into Baltimore, Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey before completing his circle through Western New York across Lake Erie back into Pennsylvania, Northeastern Ohio and Northern West Virginia.
That was where Nehlen was going to get the football players to make West Virginia a sustainable winner.
Soon, with the help of assistant coach Bob Simmons, he branched out into Northern New Jersey, and then with the help of assistant Doc Holliday, he targeted a small sliver of South Florida where many West Virginians were starting to migrate in the mid-1980s.
That's predominantly where the guys who played on West Virginia's three best football teams in 1988, 1993 and 2005 came from.
As I began scanning the list of football players that Neal Brown signed today – his first full recruiting foray for West Virginia – you see some very familiar places. There's Irvington and Deptford, New Jersey, Bradenton and Plantation, Florida and Gaithersburg and Hyattsville, Maryland.
There's also Warrensville, Ohio, and one state over in West By God, you see Fairmont and Bluefield. These places have always been in West Virginia's wheel house!
Here, there have been far fewer swings and misses.
In New Jersey, there were guys like Willie Drewrey, David Grant, Tommy Gray, Avon Cobourne, Kevin Landolt, Bryan Pukenas, Matt Taffoni and Gary Stills.
In the Baltimore-D.C. area, you're talking about players such as Brian Jozwiak, Timmy Agee, Paul Woodside, Darrell Whitmore, Jerry Porter, David Upchurch, Brian King, Ernest Hunter, Brandon Hogan and a big dude who once showed up at the Puskar Center with the gas gauge on empty and a box of high school video tapes under one arm.
That was Owen Schmitt.
The guys from South Florida became a Who's Who of Mountaineer Football over the last 50 years - unforgettable names such as Geno Smith, Stedman Bailey, J.T. Thomas, Noel Devine, Barrett Green, Khori Ivy, John Browning, Steve Grant, Reggie Rembert and so on.
This is where Don Nehlen did his player shopping.
I bring up Nehlen because he was one of the first persons Brown met after he took the West Virginia job 10 months ago. Whatever they discussed, it's clear Brown was all ears judging from the list of players that he signed today.
"We took a six-hour radius around Morgantown and that needs to be our primary recruiting area," Brown explained Wednesday when announcing his 18-player signing class. "I thought we did an okay job there, but I think we need to continue to build relationships and grow our brand and presence in those areas."
What he's referencing is West Virginia and adjoining states Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky.
"Then, we look at secondary areas where we have relationships in Alabama, Georgia, Florida or wherever it is," Brown explained.
There's also New Jersey and the metro Washington, D.C., area where West Virginia enjoyed some success today.
Who knows, perhaps Garden State tight end Charles Finley can turn into the next Anthony Becht? He's already got a 10-pound head start on Anthony when he first came to West Virginia from Monsignor Bonner High in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, as a skinny, 205-pound possession receiver.
Perhaps Deptford's Chris Mayo will be the next Bryan Pukenas, who by the way is today an assistant professor of radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. When the Medford, New Jersey, native was about 100 pounds heavier he was clearing a path for record-setting running backs Robert Walker and Amos Zereoue.
"(New Jersey) was an area when I was a young coach that I recruited heavily," Brown pointed out. "I've got an appreciation for the players in that state. And we have a large student body representation from the state of New Jersey as well."
Maybe Plantation, Florida's Daryl Porter Jr. will be the next Vann Washington or Charles Emanuel, two Sunshine State guys who played on the nation's No. 1-rated defense in 1996. Incidentally, Charles isn't doing too shabby these days as a high-profile attorney living in Jacksonville, Florida.
Mountaineer fans wouldn't have any issue with Bradenton's Quay Mays turning into the next John Browning. Big John did okay for himself playing all those years for Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City.
"There are a ton of West Virginia-South Florida connections," Brown noted. "Going into Heritage to sign Daryl Porter Jr. there's a connection with that high school. (South Florida) is an area where we can continue to be fruitful. (Assistant coach) Travis Trickett has recruited that area for a long time and done a really good job."
What about in a couple of years Gaithersburg's David Vincent-Okoli making a game-saving pick on the road to win a big game as Damascus' Brian King once did in 2002 at 13th-ranked Virginia Tech?
I think WVU fans would immediately sign up for that one.
Or, Hyattsville's Jordan White mauling defensive linemen the way Catonsville's Brian Jozwiak once consumed them during his All-American season in 1985.
That's another one Mountaineer fans would take in a heartbeat.
"The (Capital area) is one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country," Brown said. "We have to have a stronger presence in there. For going in there in the short amount of time we had I thought we did a pretty good job. I'm really excited about the guys we brought out of there and I think we will continue to grow there as well."
Two areas where West Virginia didn't fare well today – Western Pennsylvania and Ohio – Brown admits has to get better.
"We've made some inroads, but sometimes those inroads and relationships take time," he admitted.
Some people see stars when they look at football recruits. I see them, too, but I also take look at the high schools and hometowns they are coming from.
Sometimes you can learn a lot from that as well.
He'd get that map out and draw a big concentric circle around Morgantown, West Virginia. He'd start up top above Pittsburgh and continue the arc around Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio. Then he'd angle the pen down toward the southern part of West Virginia and into Southwestern Virginia.
His arc continued over into Northern Virginia and on up the I-95 corridor into Baltimore, Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey before completing his circle through Western New York across Lake Erie back into Pennsylvania, Northeastern Ohio and Northern West Virginia.
That was where Nehlen was going to get the football players to make West Virginia a sustainable winner.
Soon, with the help of assistant coach Bob Simmons, he branched out into Northern New Jersey, and then with the help of assistant Doc Holliday, he targeted a small sliver of South Florida where many West Virginians were starting to migrate in the mid-1980s.
That's predominantly where the guys who played on West Virginia's three best football teams in 1988, 1993 and 2005 came from.
As I began scanning the list of football players that Neal Brown signed today – his first full recruiting foray for West Virginia – you see some very familiar places. There's Irvington and Deptford, New Jersey, Bradenton and Plantation, Florida and Gaithersburg and Hyattsville, Maryland.
There's also Warrensville, Ohio, and one state over in West By God, you see Fairmont and Bluefield. These places have always been in West Virginia's wheel house!
Here, there have been far fewer swings and misses.
In New Jersey, there were guys like Willie Drewrey, David Grant, Tommy Gray, Avon Cobourne, Kevin Landolt, Bryan Pukenas, Matt Taffoni and Gary Stills.
In the Baltimore-D.C. area, you're talking about players such as Brian Jozwiak, Timmy Agee, Paul Woodside, Darrell Whitmore, Jerry Porter, David Upchurch, Brian King, Ernest Hunter, Brandon Hogan and a big dude who once showed up at the Puskar Center with the gas gauge on empty and a box of high school video tapes under one arm.
That was Owen Schmitt.
The guys from South Florida became a Who's Who of Mountaineer Football over the last 50 years - unforgettable names such as Geno Smith, Stedman Bailey, J.T. Thomas, Noel Devine, Barrett Green, Khori Ivy, John Browning, Steve Grant, Reggie Rembert and so on.
This is where Don Nehlen did his player shopping.
I bring up Nehlen because he was one of the first persons Brown met after he took the West Virginia job 10 months ago. Whatever they discussed, it's clear Brown was all ears judging from the list of players that he signed today.
"We took a six-hour radius around Morgantown and that needs to be our primary recruiting area," Brown explained Wednesday when announcing his 18-player signing class. "I thought we did an okay job there, but I think we need to continue to build relationships and grow our brand and presence in those areas."
What he's referencing is West Virginia and adjoining states Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, Virginia and Kentucky.
"Then, we look at secondary areas where we have relationships in Alabama, Georgia, Florida or wherever it is," Brown explained.
There's also New Jersey and the metro Washington, D.C., area where West Virginia enjoyed some success today.
Who knows, perhaps Garden State tight end Charles Finley can turn into the next Anthony Becht? He's already got a 10-pound head start on Anthony when he first came to West Virginia from Monsignor Bonner High in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, as a skinny, 205-pound possession receiver.
Perhaps Deptford's Chris Mayo will be the next Bryan Pukenas, who by the way is today an assistant professor of radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. When the Medford, New Jersey, native was about 100 pounds heavier he was clearing a path for record-setting running backs Robert Walker and Amos Zereoue.
"(New Jersey) was an area when I was a young coach that I recruited heavily," Brown pointed out. "I've got an appreciation for the players in that state. And we have a large student body representation from the state of New Jersey as well."
Maybe Plantation, Florida's Daryl Porter Jr. will be the next Vann Washington or Charles Emanuel, two Sunshine State guys who played on the nation's No. 1-rated defense in 1996. Incidentally, Charles isn't doing too shabby these days as a high-profile attorney living in Jacksonville, Florida.
Mountaineer fans wouldn't have any issue with Bradenton's Quay Mays turning into the next John Browning. Big John did okay for himself playing all those years for Marty Schottenheimer in Kansas City.
"There are a ton of West Virginia-South Florida connections," Brown noted. "Going into Heritage to sign Daryl Porter Jr. there's a connection with that high school. (South Florida) is an area where we can continue to be fruitful. (Assistant coach) Travis Trickett has recruited that area for a long time and done a really good job."
What about in a couple of years Gaithersburg's David Vincent-Okoli making a game-saving pick on the road to win a big game as Damascus' Brian King once did in 2002 at 13th-ranked Virginia Tech?
I think WVU fans would immediately sign up for that one.
Or, Hyattsville's Jordan White mauling defensive linemen the way Catonsville's Brian Jozwiak once consumed them during his All-American season in 1985.
That's another one Mountaineer fans would take in a heartbeat.
"The (Capital area) is one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country," Brown said. "We have to have a stronger presence in there. For going in there in the short amount of time we had I thought we did a pretty good job. I'm really excited about the guys we brought out of there and I think we will continue to grow there as well."
Two areas where West Virginia didn't fare well today – Western Pennsylvania and Ohio – Brown admits has to get better.
"We've made some inroads, but sometimes those inroads and relationships take time," he admitted.
Some people see stars when they look at football recruits. I see them, too, but I also take look at the high schools and hometowns they are coming from.
Sometimes you can learn a lot from that as well.
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