WVU Football Recruiting: What You May Have Missed

The WVU commitments keep rolling in with David Long announcing Sunday via Twitter that he would be joining the class of 2015. Long recently visited for the Oklahoma game and apparently was impressed enough to decide to become the lone linebacker commit in the 2015 class. The staff has a ton of depth at the linebacker position currently, particularly with young players like Al-Rasheed Benton, Marvin Gross, and Hodari Christian still emerging, not to mention some current starters with eligibility remaining. If Edward Muldrow settles down and stops overrunning so many plays, he could really come on as well; he plays with great intensity and speed. But because of all those players already on the roster developing, the staff seems to be favoring using the rest of the 2015 scholarships on other areas with greater needs.

David Long will likely end up being the only true linebacker commit of the class, but I feel that Deamonte Lindsey could also end up being a LB if he outgrows the SPUR position. In Long's film (which you can see here), it looks like he has the quickness to play in the secondary if he wanted, but he is a tackling machine and will end up at inside or outside linebacker. With Long's addition to the class, West Virginia now has 19 verbal commitments in the 2015 recruiting cycle and sits second or third in the Big 12 by most major recruiting services' rankings, trailing Texas consistently and Oklahoma in some (good company to keep). The staff is really in a good position now to focus their efforts heavily on a few marquee recruits and win some of the bigger recruiting battles.

Speaking of battles, there is an exciting conclusion in sight for Jordan Whitehead as he will be announcing his college decision on Friday. This might be the biggest commitment of the year for the coaching staff, as they want this guy as badly as they wanted Dravon Henry last year. Not only can he ball in position he's put at, but if Jordan joins the ranks he will turn the total potential of the secondary from scary good to legendary and West Virginia will have really established a consistent footprint in the WPIAL that could benefit the team for years to come. He has the size and strength to play safety and the speed to play corner so it would be interesting to see how the staff used him. Manning the SPUR position could be a potential destination, though he would get time on offense or special teams easily if need be as well.

There is some stiff competition for Whitehead's services and he has been so quiet about his recruitment that it is impossible to tell where he is headed. Right now it looks like West Virginia could be a good landing spot as he had a great visit and has some good friends on the team, but he is heavily considering Penn State, Ohio State, and Pitt as well. It will be an announcement to tune in for on Friday, and maybe WVU will have a reason to celebrate. I personally would just hate for him to go to Pitt, hopefully he joins the good guys.

Beyond Whitehead's recruitment, nothing is on the horizon too immediately except Tavares Martin's visit. Tavares Martin has long been considered a heavy WVU lean after a previous attempt at committing before he realized he had to get on campus first. That campus visit is now happening this weekend and if all goes well then it looks like another wide receiver could be joining an already solid bunch. Members of the class will be taking visits to campus and that's always a good thing for the solidity of the class, which will be a main theme until February. If everyone currently on board just right now signs in February, it would be one of the better, if not best, classes in terms of rankings that WVU has ever brought out in. Khalil Lewis already tweeted about setting up other visits, but it seems like he could just be exploring his options with no real plans of leaving the class. The staff may let him take visits but it could lead them to explore their options (which they have; Tavares Martin, etc.) more as well, though at the end of the day Lewis will hopefully be a Mountaineer and a Stedman Bailey clone at that. The staff will have to deal with similar problems throughout the rest of the season without a doubt, but it's certainly better than scrambling to find commits.

The rest of the season in terms of recruiting uncommitted players will largely be centered around a few big name recruits like Jordan Cronkite, Tim Irvin, and Tim Settle. Cronkite and Irvin have been booked to visit the weekend of the TCU game at the beginning of November and that visit will likely determine if West Virginia can be a contender for their services or not. Tim Settle recently announced he will be taking an official to West Virginia in a couple weeks for the Baylor game, though his decision won't come until December which is a lot of time to forget about a good visit. On the flip side, hopefully his WVU trip will help him forget about his new OSU official visit this weekend that he recently tweeted about.

There is still a long way to go until February, but Friday is coming up fast so get ready. There are some interesting visits on the horizon but all attention will and should be on Jordan Whitehead's upcoming decision, which may well be the biggest of the year. A commitment from him would really be a massive boost to an already great class and would bring even more Pennsylvania talent onto a roster that currently features some of his WPIAL friends. Not to mention a backfield with Whitehead, Cole, McFadden, Worley, and Dravon would be insane. Fingers crossed but hopefully next week there will be some good news to write about.

EDIT: Make it an even 20 commits for the class, JUCO defensive end Larry Jefferson just joined the Mountaineers.  The 6'5" defensive end could use a bit more weight but luckily there are some new food rules these days.  He brings a little more experience than the average recruit and good length to a position where we need as many bodies as we can get right now.