WVU Football Recruiting Update: What You May Have Missed

Things have been quiet along the recruiting front in regards to the class of 2015 lately, but that is to be expected.  The Mountaineers are fortunately at a point in their recruiting cycle where things are going to slow down quite a bit, largely due to the fact that the class is nearly full with 17 recruits and the third game of the season still hasn't been played yet.  Dana and Co. have switched to a quality over quantity approach at this point, focusing down on some high level recruits that have yet to make a decision.  The biggest name is still going to be Jordan Whitehead, a 4 star CB from PA, and if the staff can reel him in then WVU's secondary could have found its next true freshman defensive starter.  It doesn't hurt that Whitehead and Dravon Henry are both good friends, and Whitehead seems well aware of the fact that Henry and him would make a scary combo in the secondary.  Keep an eye on his story-line, as he will be visiting WVU next weekend and a decision could follow shortly after that.

Other than that, the class of 2015 has been fairly quiet in the recruiting game as the staff has made a much more concerted effort of ensuring that commits are not allowed to take visits to other schools unless they decommit, which may have helped keep some pledges from wavering.  Even more important than that however, is the fact the on-the-field product that WVU has been putting out has certainly been enough to impress the commits, and after the Bama game I would venture to say most of the nation was impressed.  The commits have been fairly vocal on Twitter in their approval of the direction that the program is heading, which could be instrumental in keeping the pledges of some of the higher level recruits that will have suitors banging on their doors until signing day.  And while there has been much more depth on the WVU roster, Holgorsen has shown time and time again that he isn't afraid to put freshman on the field which has also been a big factor to many of the recruits so far and will likely continue to be.

Though the 2015 class is not far off from being full, that hasn't stopped the coaches from delving into the 2016 ranks to get an early start on putting together that class before their senior season even begins.  The staff is off to a good start so far, with the second commitment of the class coming earlier this week from junior Jeremiah Jones.  Jeremiah, fresh from the WPIAL, is a 6'1" ATH that plays a lot of quarterback right now for his high school squad, but the coaching staff likes him more as a safety, potentially in the Spur position, where his knowledge of what a quarterback likes to do could really benefit his play-making abilities back there.  Jeremiah joins Logan Thimons, a LB from PA, as the lone two commits of the 2016 class, but given that it is this early in the recruiting cycle that is really not a bad start.  Both of those two should be visiting for the Oklahoma game, and hopefully they will be in Jordan Whitehead's ear about getting a WPIAL pipeline started at WVU.

As mentioned before, both of those recruits come from Pennsylvania, which could signal that WVU is starting to have a real shot at securing the top talent in that area over teams like PSU or OSU, which would do wonders for recruiting.  Not that WVU's recruiting has been bad by any means, Florida has still been very kind this year as always, but increased success recruiting stars from the WPIAL would really up the level of talent in the recruiting classes.  It would also be nice to see more success in a location so geographically close to us, as the coaching staff would save a fortune on travel if we could get everything we needed recruiting-wise in our backyard, though recruiting trips to Florida and beyond would still have happen with regularity.  That's all for this week but it looks like big news (though it could be good or bad) is just around the corner for the 2015 class, and hopefully good news continues to come in for the 2016 class.  In case you missed it, here is a great article by Chris Anderson about the newest 2016 commit, and you can also see Jeremiah's highlights here.