Between The Eers: Early Signing Period Preview
Between The Eers: Early Signing Period Preview
Transcript
00:00 Happy Tuesday, everybody.
00:01 Skylar Callen here on Between the Ears.
00:04 And I figured I'd give you the pleasure of just having to listen to me today
00:08 instead of having to stare at me for, you know, 10 to 15 minutes
00:11 or whatever the case may be.
00:13 But we're going audio only today, traditional podcast format.
00:17 I've got a ton of stuff going on.
00:20 Don't really have time to go through the graphics and all that good jazz.
00:25 So we'll just keep it audio today.
00:27 Tomorrow, there will be no Between the Ears show as we have,
00:30 obviously, signing day.
00:32 We will have a signing day show.
00:34 And I'll be joined by Christopher Hall, Eugene Napoleon.
00:37 We'll chip in during one interview with one of the signees.
00:40 And we'll have a couple of those guys on.
00:43 So it'll be a lot of fun.
00:44 Make sure you tune in.
00:46 Hit that subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now
00:48 to be able to get notified when that goes live on YouTube.
00:53 It'll also be on our site at MountaineersNow.com.
00:56 So today, since it is signing day,
00:59 either the early signing period eve,
01:02 figured we'd go through and touch base on kind of what to expect tomorrow.
01:08 I do have a article version of this out on the site
01:14 as the National Signing Day Primer we do every year.
01:17 Kind of a quick synopsis of what
01:20 the Mountaineers have in their back pocket right now,
01:23 what they can expect to get,
01:25 and maybe some of the movement we can expect elsewhere.
01:29 So let's go ahead and dive right into it.
01:31 Yesterday, huge news as West Virginia struck gold
01:35 not only once, not twice, but thrice
01:38 as they picked up three commitments in the transfer portal.
01:42 Wide receiver Jaden Bray out of Oklahoma State,
01:45 TJ Crandall, Colorado State defensive back.
01:48 That'll play some corner.
01:51 And then they also rounded out things for the day with Ty French,
01:55 the true elite pass rusher from the FCS level of Gardner Webb.
02:00 And huge commitments.
02:02 Jaden Bray, I had been told, was leaning to West Virginia,
02:06 but thought that there was some possibility that he'd be taking other visits.
02:10 So them wrapping things up with him was good news.
02:14 Neil Brown has talked about it for a while now,
02:17 that they wanted to get an established receiver that they could put in there
02:21 with these young cats that they have in Gallagher and Ray.
02:25 They were able to take care of that.
02:27 Wouldn't be shocked if they add another receiver at some point this offseason,
02:32 but more than likely, that'll probably do it
02:35 with the guys that they have coming in from the high school ranks,
02:39 what they have coming back.
02:41 But wouldn't be shocked if they do add one more.
02:44 They did lose four guys via the portal.
02:46 So there is an opportunity there for them to add.
02:49 But as they stand right now, they're actually over the scholarship limit.
02:53 So there's going to be some reductions to this roster as we currently sit.
02:58 So take for that what you will.
03:01 The two defensive guys, Ty French,
03:05 I felt pretty good on, but couldn't get a solid read on him.
03:10 So this is a huge, huge upgrade for West Virginia.
03:16 They haven't had a true pass rusher like this in a long, long time,
03:21 especially not in Neil Brown's tenure at West Virginia.
03:25 So this is an immediate upgrade.
03:29 It's somebody that make an immediate impact.
03:30 He has to. He's only a one year eligible guy.
03:34 And I think he's going to be able to do that right from the get go.
03:38 Ty French, massive get.
03:40 But I think maybe the biggest of the three is TJ Crandell,
03:44 because to be quite honest with you, is the biggest surprise of the three.
03:47 TJ had visited UCLA, had been in talks with other schools as well,
03:54 but it really came down to UCLA and West Virginia.
03:56 I talked to him a couple of times throughout the past week,
04:00 and I kind of got the sense that he was leaning UCLA
04:03 prior to the West Virginia visit.
04:07 He takes the West Virginia visit over the weekend.
04:09 And throughout the last two or three days,
04:13 I kind of sensed a bit of a shift in where he was leaning.
04:18 Got the sense that it was going to be West Virginia.
04:22 But there was still that chance that it was going to be UCLA.
04:26 I would say I felt 55, 45, maybe 60, 40 in favor of West Virginia.
04:32 And then I towards the end, I was like, it might be 65, 45 West Virginia.
04:39 But nonetheless, it was still somewhat the biggest surprise
04:42 because there was an actual other finalist or another team in hot pursuit
04:47 for him that he had already taken a visit to.
04:49 So huge news on that front.
04:52 He's going to be able to come in and compete for a spot right away,
04:55 whether it's to start or be a rotational guy.
04:58 Regardless, it's a major, massive win.
05:02 He's got three years of eligibility, had a stellar true freshman season
05:06 at Colorado State.
05:08 So those are the three that they picked up yesterday.
05:12 As you can hear my dog jingling and jangling in the background.
05:15 But three big pickups yesterday, some guys to watch.
05:21 There's three guys in the portal that I think makes sense, have visited
05:27 and are still kind of in limbo.
05:31 Ohio State linebacker Reed Carrico.
05:34 Ohio State cornerback Cameron Martinez and Villanova
05:37 cornerback Devin Marshall.
05:40 Those three I felt better about a week ago.
05:45 Or maybe prior to this weekend, I should say.
05:49 Carrico I felt really good about.
05:52 But I've been told probably within the last 48 hours
06:00 that the interest may have cooled off a little bit.
06:05 That's not to say that he still can't commit to West Virginia,
06:09 but I think there's some things there where, again, it's a numbers game,
06:13 number one, number two, he understands he's not going to be coming in and starting.
06:19 So with those two things combined, I don't know if I expect Carrico to commit,
06:25 but if anything happens in the next 24 to 36 hours,
06:32 it's probably West Virginia.
06:35 Probably.
06:37 Losing that term loosely.
06:39 But as far as Martinez and Marshall go,
06:43 I don't see them adding another defensive back.
06:46 I just don't.
06:47 I think when you get Crandall, that was kind of, again, the unexpected.
06:51 Maybe not unexpected, but you really had to fight for it.
06:55 You really weren't sure about it.
06:57 So now that you've got Crandall in your back pocket,
07:01 I don't expect them to add Martinez or Marshall.
07:05 I think they'd like to add Marshall, but it's gonna be, again,
07:10 tough to add with all the numbers that you have right now and
07:14 the other spots that you wanna add too.
07:17 There are, however, two high school names that you need to keep an eye on.
07:22 Running back Trayvon Dunbar from Granville, South Carolina.
07:27 He has had an in-home visit with Chad Scott, Neil Brown.
07:32 Earlier this month, he took an official visit as well.
07:35 And the coaching staff had a pretty good idea that one, if not two,
07:42 guys in that current running back room would be departing for the portal.
07:47 Justin Johnson has already done so.
07:49 Maybe there's one more coming after the bowl game, potentially.
07:55 Either way, they wanna add a second running back in this class.
08:00 They already have Deore Hubbard.
08:01 But Trayvon Dunbar is a load man.
08:06 I mean, he is physical.
08:08 He's got a nice burst to him.
08:11 He's a really good, I would call, combo back.
08:14 He can do a little bit of the power, yet he's got some finesse to him.
08:20 He's a really, really interesting back, and I think is gonna be somebody
08:25 that can play fairly early in his career at the next level.
08:31 So my assumption is that Dunbar will be a Mountaineer.
08:39 That's my assumption.
08:40 Again, it's very hard to forecast what these 17 and 18 year old kids are gonna do,
08:46 but all signs are pointing to Dunbar signing with West Virginia.
08:52 The other, and hold on to your seat for this one.
08:59 Rick Darius, farmer.
09:02 UCF wide receiver commit, previously committed to Pitt.
09:08 West Virginia's been in the mix for a long time and has stayed persistent.
09:14 Have stayed hot on the heels of both Pitt and
09:22 UCF whenever he was committed to each of those schools, and is still committed to
09:27 UCF.
09:28 He took his official visit to Morgantown last weekend, or well, two weekends ago.
09:32 And if I had to put a number on it,
09:39 I would say
09:44 70%,
09:48 maybe 75% that he's a Mountaineer.
09:58 Technically, I would go much,
10:01 much, much higher than that with what I've been told.
10:05 However, As I just stated a couple of seconds ago,
10:14 these are high school kids that we're talking about, things change at the flip
10:19 of a hat.
10:20 So, and no pun intended, by the way.
10:23 But I really feel confident that farmer will flip to West Virginia.
10:30 I just don't wanna put it any higher than the percentage I gave out,
10:38 because then it's almost a certainty that he comes.
10:40 And then if he doesn't, then I get dragged through the mud and
10:45 told that I was wrong.
10:46 But either way, I guess you could do that.
10:48 So have at it if it doesn't happen, but I feel really confident Rick Darius,
10:51 farmer as well.
10:53 So I think you're gonna see two ads to the 24 class and
10:56 Trayvon Dunbar, Rick Darius, farmer.
10:58 And that'll put together a really strong signing day,
11:05 early signing period for Neil Brown and company.
11:08 And as far as the transfers go, again, I don't know that I would expect any
11:12 transfers to make their commitment to West Virginia in the next 24 hours,
11:17 unless it's Reed-Terrico outside of that, I wouldn't expect anything.
11:21 But we'll see, again, we'll have the National Signing Day show
11:26 on Mountaineers Now, the site and on our YouTube channel.
11:32 So please be sure to hit that subscribe button,
11:36 follow us on X at Mountaineers Now, and we'll get that show out as soon as we can.
11:42 We're gonna try and wait as long as we possibly can to get all those commits and
11:50 make sure that they've already signed so we can talk extensively about them.
11:54 We have two of them coming on the show, as I said, Kyle Altuner and
11:59 Obina Onwuka, and we'll also try to make sure we get it up in time
12:04 before the basketball game tomorrow night against Radford.
12:08 Also because Chris has to be there, so we'll try to get that all for you.
12:13 We appreciate you guys for tuning in to another episode of Between the Ears.
12:17 We'll be back at it tomorrow.
12:19 So I'm Skyler Callahan, this has been another episode of Between the Ears.
12:22 Again, no episode tomorrow, but signing day, here we come.