Between The Eers: WVU Football Transfer Portal Insight
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00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 How we doing everybody?
00:11 Happy Friday, Skylar Callen here on Between the Ears, Mountaineers Now.
00:15 We're gonna end this week with a fast Friday like we normally do,
00:19 just a few minutes.
00:21 Usually this is kind of the episode where I give some updates on stuff that's going
00:24 on, whether it's basketball, injury news, or whether it's football.
00:29 Recruiting news, or just anything in between.
00:33 Today, I'm gonna just basically hit on the transfer portal stuff that's going on.
00:38 What I know, both going out and coming in.
00:43 So, first things first, do not freak out when there are going to be
00:49 some transfer portal guys that leave WVU, it's going to happen.
00:55 It's inevitable, there's no going around it.
00:58 It's going to happen, West Virginia is over the scholarship limit.
01:02 So, you can only have 85 players on scholarship as of right now for NCAA rules.
01:08 West Virginia is over that total when you combine the NCAA, or
01:13 excuse me, when you combine the transfer commits and the high school signees.
01:19 So, when you combine those guys with what they have coming back,
01:23 they're already over that 85 number.
01:27 There's gonna be even more additions here within the coming week,
01:31 within the next seven days.
01:32 So again, that just means there's going to be more departures.
01:37 Do not panic, don't freak out when guys start fleeing for the portal.
01:43 It's gonna happen.
01:43 What I can tell you from what I know is that of those that are going to depart,
01:54 there's not as of right now, as of Friday morning here at 930 as I record this,
02:01 there is not any game changing transfers that are guys that
02:07 are gonna be entering the portal that are gonna severely impact WVU.
02:11 That can change by the time I stop recording this, or
02:16 it could be changing as I'm recording this.
02:18 But as of right now, there are no needle moving
02:22 guys that are gonna be leaving the program, so that's a good thing.
02:26 Like I said, it could change because the other day when I was recording
02:36 the one episode about the 23 class, we were going back and looking at how they panned out.
02:41 At that time, I had no idea.
02:44 I had not been made aware of Tommy Wadderjie, and
02:48 literally within minutes of the episode dropping, we got the news about Tommy Wadd.
02:54 So that one kind of came out of left field.
02:58 Again, had I known that, I would have held off on that episode and
03:03 waited until that news dropped and then would have kind of adjusted my plans with that.
03:09 But anyway, no big news coming out there.
03:12 As far as Tommy was concerned, again, it was really out of left field.
03:17 The coaching staff, from what I'm hearing, had not been expecting that to take place.
03:23 Whereas some of the other ones they have, like Hershey McLaurin,
03:28 they kind of knew, Jared Bartlett they had known,
03:30 Justin Johnson they had a really good feeling about.
03:36 So those were ones that they knew they expected.
03:40 Mike Lockhart, somebody that they would have liked to have kept around, but
03:45 quite frankly, when he expressed interest to kind of peek around,
03:50 they weren't all that interested in upping, not them per se, but
03:56 the NIL collective was not interested in upping their pool for him.
04:03 And when you have guys like Mike Lockhart, Fatorma Moba, or excuse me,
04:08 Fatorma Moba, Hammond Russell, Corey McIntyre,
04:12 they feel good about that situation up front.
04:14 So there's no issue there.
04:16 James Hurd was a little bit of a surprise, I would say,
04:19 probably the first somewhat surprise.
04:22 But this Tommy Waddarajah one was really the first one,
04:27 at least in my opinion, that really caught them off guard and
04:32 is one that's going to be felt immediately.
04:34 James Hurd was still somebody that they were grooming and developing.
04:37 So anyways, moving on, moving on to the guys that are going to be coming
04:42 into Morgantown this weekend.
04:44 So I initially reported they were going to have four transfers on campus this
04:49 weekend.
04:49 [COUGH] Excuse me.
04:51 Jacksonville State offensive lineman, Xavier Bosley.
04:57 West Virginia native, played for Rich Rod, he's got three years remaining.
05:02 He started 11 games for the Gamecocks this year.
05:05 He was a freshman All-American by the athletic.
05:11 Elijah Hills, Albany defensive lineman, if he comes and
05:15 plays at West Virginia, who have a chance to play against his former team.
05:18 He has one year remaining.
05:20 And he was scheduled to come to West Virginia today.
05:25 He has told me since that that has been pushed back, so
05:27 he will be arriving on Saturday.
05:29 Bosley arrived Thursday evening or Thursday afternoon.
05:33 TJ Jackson, Troy defensive lineman, he's already on campus.
05:38 He got there, I believe, on Thursday.
05:40 And then Kobe Singleton was somewhat of a late addition.
05:46 He's got one year remaining from Liberty and
05:50 is a very, very talented player, one of the top ten.
05:54 I believe he's top ten nationally in passes defended,
05:58 first team all conference USA honors.
06:01 So those four were the initial four that I reported.
06:04 Then we got word that South Alabama defensive back,
06:11 mainly safety, Jayden Voisin has canceled his visit
06:18 to Mississippi State to come to West Virginia, to visit West Virginia, I should say.
06:24 He's got one year remaining.
06:26 He's probably one of the top defensive back transfers out there on the market
06:30 right now, over the last two years, he's recorded 151 tackles,
06:35 18 pass defended, eight and a half tackles for loss, six interceptions,
06:40 two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery, so very talented player.
06:46 And we have been talking about this since day one, defensive back, safety depth
06:52 has been something that this coaching staff is going to pursue heavily in the portal.
06:57 And not just with the numbers of guys that are coming in, but
07:04 I've been told that they would like to add at least two more defensive backs to
07:08 this transfer class, initially I thought that was going to be one.
07:13 That's now been flipped up to two, I wouldn't even be shocked if they added
07:16 three more guys, so we've got three committed, looking to add two more.
07:21 And I'll also throw this little nugget out there as well.
07:25 There's another defensive back transfer that could be visiting West Virginia
07:31 that I didn't mention just there, trying to get confirmation on him.
07:37 Haven't received that confirmation in time for this episode, but
07:41 keep your eyes out for that.
07:43 If I get word on anything, I will tweet it out,
07:46 I will have an article out on Mountaineers Now.
07:49 So that's kind of where things stand as of right now.
07:52 Those five guys plus potentially another defensive back that could be visiting.
07:59 So we'll see what happens.
08:03 In terms of the five guys that are for sure visiting,
08:06 where West Virginia stands.
08:10 One of them, one of the defensive linemen, I'm not going to give away which one
08:14 because I don't want to ruin the kids moment or anything like that.
08:16 But one of those, They feel really good about.
08:22 I'll just put it at that.
08:24 They feel really good about where they stand with him and their chances.
08:27 As you could probably see Jordan Leslie, the defensive coordinator WVU,
08:34 put out his little tweet yesterday kind of insinuating that they're in a good spot.
08:41 I had actually been told, honestly, probably 10,
08:47 15 minutes before about this kid before Leslie tweeted.
08:52 And usually the stamp of approval or the stamp of confirmation when a coach
08:59 tweets out their little gif or gifs or whatever you want to call them.
09:02 When they tweet those out, that's when you know, okay, that's for sure going to happen.
09:06 So, or at least should happen.
09:10 So feel good about, really good about one of the defensive linemen.
09:14 I would say probably really good about one of the defensive backs,
09:17 maybe even two of them.
09:19 But I would be honest with you in saying that I think they got a shot with
09:25 literally each and every single one of these transfers.
09:27 I'm not saying they're going to land every single one of them that are visiting
09:31 this weekend, but they've got a really good chance.
09:33 They stand on good ground with all of them.
09:35 And then particularly with Foyson, I mean,
09:37 he can't sort of visit to come visit West Virginia.
09:40 So you got to think that you are in a good position there.
09:43 So that's about all I have for you right now.
09:46 Like I said, if I have any further updates, I will put it out on Twitter.
09:50 At my handle @Callahan_.
09:52 I also have an article up on Mountaineers Now.
09:56 And that'll do it for us here this week on Between the Ears.
09:59 No show on Saturday or Sunday.
10:01 We take those days off around here, except for we will have the Mountaineers Now
10:05 post game show with West Virginia and Houston tomorrow night.
10:08 And we'll also, we'll have Sunday off.
10:13 So we'll be back on Monday.
10:15 Make sure you hit the subscribe button on YouTube at Mountaineers Now and
10:17 give us a follow at the same handle, onyx.
10:21 And we'll see you guys tomorrow night for
10:22 the post game show between West Virginia and Houston.
10:25 Take care.
10:25 [MUSIC]