WVSports.com continues with our popular feature: The 3-2-1. We'll breakdown three things we learned that week, two questions we have and give one prediction.

Here is the next installment of the 3-2-1 looking at the West Virginia football program, the latest on basketball and what’s happening in recruiting.

3 things I learned:

1—Relationships in recruiting are more important than ever. Given the rise of the transfer portal and other changes that are set to take place in college football never has it been more important to cultivate connections and keep those intact. It’s never been a good idea to burn bridges on the recruiting trail but with the reality that you could be targeting the same player in a few years, or even months, in some circumstances makes it as critical as ever to keep those bonds strong.

Recruiting is an emotional roller coaster for essentially all involved, but as we’ve seen in recent months with ties helping to lead to several transfer targets it is going to be paramount to keep a level head. You might not get a player the first go-around, but with more and more players entering the transfer portal and the ease of the restrictions on sitting out for a season when you do it’s more like you could down the line.

The connections that offensive coordinator Graham Harrell had with Georgia quarterback JT Daniels from their shared time at USC was a significant in when it came to him picking the Mountaineers. Same can be said for Miami linebacker transfer Tirek Austin-Cave who was a top target of the program the first time around but ended up choosing the Hurricanes instead.