With no spring practice ongoing in Morgantown and coaches out of the office confined to their homes, the focus has shifted to the recruiting trail for West Virginia.

And while it's ongoing for obvious reasons it's taken on a different look.

The Mountaineers can’t host any visitors or make in-person contact with prospects as part of the NCAA mandated dead period until at least April 15 but that doesn’t mean that the wheels aren’t turning.

In fact, in some respects the process of recruiting has become a little easier due the abundance of people quarantined in their homes as part of the response to the COVID-19 global pandemic.

That has been true for the head coach Neal Brown as well, as he has been more active than he normally is with recruiting at this time of the year due to not being able to work with players or go to the office. That means more game-tape evaluations not only for the 2021 class but future ones as well.

But because the current situation has altered the landscape that means some adjustments were needed on the coaches’ end as well to adapt to the current times.

Instead of simply calling on the phone, coaches are now working on using video chats or face-time in order to try to create a more personal setting. That is true not only in conversations, but in the way that the coaches have presented the program to potential targets.

That means turning those video calls into opportunities to frame them as if the prospects or their families were in the office with Brown as he meets with them to address any concerns.

It also means being more creative in taking the West Virginia football brand to them by using videos and other methods to expose those prospects that perhaps haven’t been to campus a taste of it.

The positive news for the Mountaineers is that they did do a good job getting ahead of the curve from December to the first weekend in March by hosting a total of six junior day events. Those events got a long list of talented prospects with scholarship offers to campus, some of which made multiple stops.

But for those that haven’t been able to make the trek such as those in the Southeast, it has been more of a challenge due to distance. That challenge becomes even trickier as many of those prospects that did have visits scheduled to Morgantown have not been able to make those trips due to this lull.

That’s where capitalizing on video, virtual tours and other on-line options have been key to help keep the Mountaineers in the mix until those visits can occur.

“Trying to stay in the game as long as we can,” Brown said.

That still isn't a perfect solution because you're missing out on those opportunities to feature practice situations but communication has been the key.

It isn’t perfect, but it certainly is a way to stay ahead in an ever-evolving recruiting landscape.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @PatrickKotnik

•Like us on Facebook