West Virginia has a new running backs coach, in the experienced Larry Porter.
Porter, a 27-year coaching veteran, came to Morgantown after previously serving as the running backs coach and special teams coordinator at North Carolina for the past four seasons.
The assistant has had a long career with multiple stops with the Tar Heels along with Auburn, Texas, Arizona State, LSU, Oklahoma State, Arkansas State and Tennessee-Martin. He has coached a long list of NFL running backs and is renowned for his work at the position.
Porter also served as the head coach at Memphis for two seasons and was an obvious pick for head coach Rich Rodriguez once Chad Scott took the running backs coach at Texas given his experience.
“What he’s done in the past. I’ve known him and known of him for a long time,” Rodriguez said. “He’s worked for a lot of people that I respect and I talked to a few about him.”
Rodriguez wanted to add a veteran presence to go along with some of the really good young coaches on the roster in order to help balance out the overall makeup of the group.
“He’ll do a great job with our running backs,” Rodriguez said.
Porter will inherit a room that returns junior Jahiem White as he is the most productive returning piece on the offensive side of the ball after rushing for 845 yards and 7 touchdowns last season. White has missed the majority of the first portion of spring due to a minor knee issue although he is likely to return down the stretch.
With White was on the sidelines, that opened up opportunities for others on the roster to make a move up the depth chart. The Mountaineers have a number of options in the mix of both transfer and returning players.
The Mountaineers were aggressive in the transfer portal, landing a pair of options in Northern Iowa transfer Tye Edwards and Catawba College transfer LJ Turner.
Edwards spent the past two seasons with the Panthers where he rushed for 1,557 yards and 11 touchdowns. That included this past season where Edwards rushed for 1,022 yards and 6 scores while catching 12 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown.
Edwards collected a total of 1,233 yards after contact for an average of 4.39 yards after contact per attempt. But he also was elusive, forcing a total of 71 forced missed tackles across 267 carries.
“Tye Edwards has made a big step from when we first started practicing to now. And he's a 235-pound big guy that can run and can get downhill. So he's been pleased with his progress,” Rodriguez said.
Turner is another productive back after rushing for 1,961 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns in three seasons with the Indians. But his 2024 campaign was his most impressive to date with 1,224 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns earning him Division II all-American honors.
The 5-foot-9, 189-pounder, eclipsed 1,200 yards in just eight total games and had a game where he rushed for 329 yards and 5 touchdowns.
“I think he has made some flashes,” Rodriguez said.
Behind the transfers, the Mountaineers have some in-house options that return such as redshirt freshmen Diore Hubbard and Trae’von Dunbar. The pair only combined for one rushing yard in 2024, but both are now a year older and should be in a better position to compete.
“Hubbard has done a good job,” Rodriguez said.
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