Spring transfer portal window opening with practice ongoing at WVU
The spring window for the transfer portal is set to open and with that comes movement across the college football landscape.
The question at West Virginia will be just what does that look like?
The window will open this coming week and span 15 days affording players the opportunity to enter into the database following the initial window in the winter.
The Mountaineers are hoping that there isn’t any significant movement on the roster, but there’s always uncertainty with the process.
“I’m not naïve to think we won’t have any,” head coach Neal Brown said.
There should at least be a few as several underclassmen previously left the program such as freshman running back DJ Oliver and redshirt freshman offensive lineman Charlie Katarincic so that should be a mere formality once they enter their names.
But outside that no other players have yet to publicly indicate that they plan on doing so.
One thing different for West Virginia this year is the fact that spring practice is still ongoing and will continue through the Gold-Blue game on April 27. That wasn’t by design by the coaches, but it is at least an interesting wrinkle into the process.
That decision was made to provide a one-week buffer period for the players on the current roster between the end of spring break and the start of practice in order to avoid soft tissue injuries. That was an issue the year prior, and the decision-makers felt it was best to push things back an additional week to help provide a chance for players to ramp up activity before jumping into practice.
Still, it will be an interesting case study on how it affects the process, if at all.
“We’ll see this is new for us, too,” Brown said.
The sixth-year head coach is quick to remind that the window is open for 15 days and it doesn’t matter if a player would enter on the first or the last. But with practice ongoing it does at least keep those on the roster occupied longer than usual.
This of course has no bearing on graduate transfers as they can enter the portal at any point without the need for any windows, but it is key for younger players on the roster.
The college game continues to evolve, and the Mountaineers enter into this week in a solid place with the roster and will look to remain that way.
“First time doing it. We’ll kind of see how it goes,” Brown said.
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