West Virginia Mountaineers Football Recruiting: What You May Have Missed

The biggest loss on the recruiting trail thus far this season came on Friday when Jordan Whitehead chose Pitt over WVU, OSU, and PSU.  Early playing time ended up sounding like the biggest factor for Jordan and, with the combination of current players and current commits, West Virginia didn't have as sure or quick a path to the field as Pitt does right now. Jordan Whitehead isn't head and shoulders better than current commits by any means, but keeping the WPIAL pipeline momentum would have been excellent.  Also, losing anything to Pitt leaves a sour taste.  On the upside I'm sure we can expect a transfer to the good guys in the next year or two after he plays there for a bit, it seems to be the recent trend.

A surprising commitment followed that news earlier this week luckily, giving West Virginia fans something to smile about.  Robert Landers, unranked DT from Ohio, committed to Mountaineers after a quick visit up to meet the defensive coaching staff.  Landers is a 6'2", 295 lbs. prospect that has been lightly recruited up until receiving the West Virginia offer, but the staff loves to find gems.  His film can be seen here.  He has a good motor but it will be interesting to see where ends up on the D-line, he could fit at DT or NT potentially.  The coaches always seem to pull out some off the radar recruits every year and this one is no different.  Landers will help provide more depth at a position of need and brings the class up to 21 commits.  He joins Larry Jefferson, the 6'5" JUCO DE (see film here) that committed last week, as the second D-line commitment in the class.  Stone Wolfley seems destined for TE right now.

Beyond the commitment of Robert Landers, nothing much else has happened on the recruiting trail, as the coaches have likely been lining things up and preparing for the long stretch of conference play that the Mountaineers are now in.  However, even if this was February right now, the staff would have less to worry about in terms of recruiting more players versus hanging on to their players.  WVU has some commits that other major programs would love to steal away, and the fight isn't over until they're signed and on their way to campus.  With the class almost full anyways, it is likely that we will only see a couple more commitments if that.  Tim Settle is visiting for the Baylor game and Cronkite and Irvin are visiting in the weeks following that but it seems likely that those battles will be drawn out for a long while regardless.  If I had to take a guess, I would say WVU's class is going to finish up very much how it looks now, with at most maybe a commitment from Tavares Martin at WR and then maybe one or two more along either of the lines.