West Virginia Football Recruiting Update: News and Notes

Mike Harley - Fort Lauderdale, FL (St. Thomas Aquinas)

West Virginia’s top rated recruit, 5’-9” speedster Mike Harley caused some waves over the past week. First, in his high school title game, Mike showed why he is such a prize for the Mountaineers. Mike started the game with a 25-yard touchdown and finished the game with 5 catches for 133 yards and 3 touchdowns.

After the game, reports surfaced that West Virginia’s bowl game against Miami would be used as the deciding factor between the two schools Mike is considering. Harley has long been considered a West Virginia commit, but he does hail from Florida and Miami is right in his back yard. Miami has made a late push for the 247Sports 3-star recruit. Mike helped put an end to the nonsense yesterday, saying on Twitter that a bowl game would not decide his future.

JUCO National Letters of Intent

Tomorrow starts the early signing period for junior college players who wish to sign their national letter of intent. Two West Virginia commits, Quondarius Qualls and Jalen Harvey will both sign their letters.

Quondarius and Jalen comes to West Virginia from the same Community College as Big 12 Newcomer of the Year Justin Crawford. All are from Northwest Mississippi CC.

Qualls gives the Tony Gibson another linebacker for his defense. Qualls stands at 6’-2” and weighs 220, the same size as Al Rasheed-Benton. Gibson is faced with losing two senior linebackers, Justin Arndt and Sean Walters, while having only three upper classmen return. Outside of David Long, none of the other freshmen saw much if any game time. Qualls helps spell that gap from the 2014 class.

Harvey is a big bodied defense tackle who will help bridge the gap on the line. There are no returning upper classmen on the roster and while Reese Donahue and Adam Shuler had valuable game experience this year, having more defensive linemen is always necessary. Harvey gives the Mountaineers a presence both inside and outside and could be asked to man the nose tackle position, the fulcrum of any 3-man front.

Lamont Wade Clairton, PA (Clairton)

Lamont Wade was recently named Pennsylvania’s Player of the Year, took an official visit to the Mountaineers December 3rd. Wade has visited the Mountaineers multiple times this year and will be looking to make his official decision on December 17th.