West Virginia wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett demands one thing above all else in his position room.
“Toughness, first and foremost. We’re going to play with a hard edge,” he said.
That can be defined in many different ways, but Garrett is looking for a player that is going to embody those traits and when he talks to a high school coach, he wants them to tell him that the player is a hard worker.
“We want to know that you’re not allergic to the weight room. That you like getting in there. Ultimately, I think we make it too hard sometimes. At every position on our team, we’re trying to identify those hard-edged traits in those guys that come in,” Garrett said.
The goal is to find players that don’t just like football but instead love it. And on top of that avoid some of the negative stereotypes at the position that are out there with the prima donna attitudes.
“That’s not how we’re going to play. We’re relied on a lot in this offense. We have to be able to do a lot of different stuff. And we’ve got to play hard, and we’ve got to be tough,” Garrett said.
Of course, the Mountaineers want players that can run downfield and catch the football with production being at the forefront over the word potential. That means that when Garrett turns on the tape of a potential prospect he wants to see those players high-pointing footballs and running past defensive backs.
As part of that, West Virginia places an emphasis on elite athletes that often demonstrate their abilities in multiple sports.
In fact, Garrett has spent plenty of time in his early recruiting efforts watching basketball highlights in order to find those talented options.
“Right now, we're early in our recruiting process, but we've been evaluating a lot of basketball film this time of year with high school basketball season just ending. But we love those multi-sport guys,” he said.
Every offense does different things, but the Mountaineers are unique when it comes to their tempo. While the offense operates fast, the wide receivers must know how to play multiple positions as the ball moves hashes. For example, a wide receiver might start out as the X but as the offense moves down the field could change those positions to the Z or even back to where they started on a single series.
West Virginia asks their wide receivers to run down the field a lot, whether that’s taking shots down the field or blocking, and that requires that element of toughness.
“We’re asking them to strain every play. You won’t see our receivers standing around and watching while you see us play. You’re going to see guys constantly moving and working,” Garrett said.
The position coach tells his group that they need to be in the best shape of anybody in the country and certainly out of all the positions on the field. So while athleticism is critical, toughness is a component that is a necessity when it comes to playing in the West Virginia offense.
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