Neal Brown adds a pair of three-star athletes to West Virginia’s 2021 recruiting class as preferred walk-ons

National Signing Day has been quiet on the West Virginia front. The Mountaineers were able to sign the sixteen athletes that were verbally committed during the early signing period in December, but that doesn’t mean Neal Brown and staff aren’t still working to fill out the 2021 class — including today’s unprecedented addition of two three-star recruits as preferred walk-ons.

Spring Valley offensive lineman Bryce Biggs, the third ranked athlete from West Virginia in this recruiting class, announced his commitment to the Mountaineers this afternoon, choosing to walkon over a full ride scholarship from Eastern Kentucky.

Biggs was previously held a scholarship offer and was committed to the Marshall Thundering Herd, but the coaching staff change in Huntington led to his offer being pulled and replaced with the offer to blueshirt the upcoming season.

Biggs holds a 0.8302 composite rating from 247Sports and is the No. 132 offensive tackle in the 2021 signing class.

Joining Biggs as a walkon will be Massillon, Ohio native Martavien Johnson. Johnson also announced his commitment to West Virginia earlier this afternoon via Twitter.

The 5’9”, 170lb. slot receiver held scholarship offers from Buffalo, Bowling Green, Miami-Ohio, Army and Navy, but chose to join his high school teammate, Andrew Wilson-Lamp, in Morgantown. Johnson was the second leading receiver for the Tigers in 2020, racking up 498 yards receiving and three touchdowns on 36 receptions, and was the team’s top punt returner with a 10 yard average on 14 punt returns.

Johnson holds a 0.8255 composite rating from 247Sports and is the No. 64 overall recruit from Ohio in this signing class.

Chris Anderson from 247Sports has noted that the walkon duo are both ranked as high, or higher, than the average Mountaineer scholarship players from a few years ago.