Where has West Virginia football recruited under Brown?

West Virginia head coach Neal Brown took over the program in January of 2019 but where have the Mountaineers been recruiting during that time?

Considering most of the class was put together in 2019 when Brown took the job, we'll look at how recruiting has unfolded from the 2020-24 classes.

Brown made it clear that the Mountaineers will be recruiting within a six-hour radius for the bulk of their classes and that obviously includes an emphasis on in-state targets.

But given the low numbers of players coming out of West Virginia that makes mining those secondary areas even more important. Those areas include places that the coaching staff has recruited well in the past on top of southern states such as Florida, Alabama and other places that have been kind to the program in the past.

“We’ve got to be in a lot of different areas as far as secondary,” Brown said.

But how have the numbers turned out?

The Mountaineers signed 102 players not including transfers starting with the class of 2020 and let's take a look at the breakdown from each area.

In terms of those states within that traditional footprint and six-hour radius, the Mountaineers have landed 13 from Ohio, 10 from Pennsylvania, 8 from Maryland, 8 from West Virginia, 5 from New Jersey, 3 from Kentucky, 3 from North Carolina and 2 from Virginia.

That is 52 of the 102 players coming from within that region.

The draw to the Big 12 is that is presents a different opportunity for players who want to leave the region to play in a different league.

“We are able to offer some things to East coast kids whether it’s guys that are in our immediate geographic fit whether it’s Philadelphia, the DMV, Pittsburgh, Columbus and even into New Jersey,” Brown said.

From the secondary options, that has been 17 from Florida, 8 from Georgia, 4 from Alabama, 2 from Mississippi, 2 from Michigan, 2 from Texas, 2 from Illinois, 2 from South Carolina, 1 from Massachusetts, 1 from Louisiana, 1 from Indiana, 1 from New York and 1 from Missouri.

The Mountaineers also have one from Arizona. Again that is 44 of the 102 players.

The remaining six have come from the international ranks with one each from Canada, Australia, Sweden, Finland, Germany and The Netherlands.

So to date, Brown is keeping to his plan of pulling the most players out of those regions closest to them as they continue to forge relationships while also pulling players out of talent-rich regions which have been good to the program in the south.

This is continuing to evolve as well as states like Michigan are becoming more prominent so it will be interesting to see how those secondary areas continue to evolve over time.

One thing that's clear is that given the unique location of West Virginia compared to so many of the schools they recruit against it presents some interesting opportunities for players looking at a chance to step outside the norm.

“We can offer them an opportunity to play in the Big 12. The Big 12 is a unique league and there are some things in that that is clearly defining,” he said.

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