Neal Brown left no doubt in his introductory press conference.

“Keeping the best players in the state at home is a top priority,” he said.

West Virginia took a major step on that front as well as with the rest of the 2020 recruiting class by landing the pledge of the state’s top ranked player in Bluefield (W.Va.) defensive end Sean Martin.

Martin, 6-foot-5, 255-pounds, took official visits to West Virginia, Penn State, Purdue and North Carolina but ultimately the efforts of the home-state Mountaineers won out in the end.