The transfer portal is a key piece to roster building but West Virginia at its heart wants to be a program that focuses the majority of their efforts on developing from within according to head coach Neal Brown.

That starts with identifying high school prospects at a young age, getting them to campus multiple times and getting to know them and eventually signing them. From there, development takes over and eventually retention in order to keep those players within the program over the long haul.

The Mountaineers estimate that they will have around 30 players turning over annually and want to focus around 22-24 of those slots on high school prospects with the rest being transfer additions. Of course, that number could fluctuate depending on how players mature and if the retention rate is high at various spots.

“We want to recruit and do a good job in the evaluation and selection process and develop them which we’ve done a really good job in those systems of developing our players and then retain them,” Brown said.

The retention aspect of course includes the NIL component but expands to much more including the overall player experience and the culture within the program. That includes areas such as recovery, nutrition and all of the areas that serve the player in order to improve their overall experience on campus.

Now, obviously West Virginia has successfully targeted transfer portal options to fill needs, and that will continue to be a strategy used by the coaching staff. It becomes even more important for areas where the coaching staff believes they haven’t evaluated as well such as with defensive backs this past year.

“We’ve been a lot more portal-heavy in the defensive backfield than any other position,” Brown said.

The ultimate goal is to develop from within across the board and this year Brown wants to see that occur on the offensive line with some of the young pieces on the roster as well as on the defensive line. The Mountaineers used as many as eight offensive linemen last year and need to see jumps out of young players.

Meanwhile, on the defensive line, Brown feels good about the two-deep but wants to discover who is going to emerge in that third group in the rotation at that spot.

“That’s what we want to be is a school where we out evaluate, select the right people, come in and develop them and retain them,” he said. “Miss on areas or we don’t do as good a job or lose somebody you don’t want to lose then you use the portal.”

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