Kaden Prather was one of the highest rated recruits in the 2021 West Virginia recruiting class.

Perched at No. 203 nationally, the Maryland native collected offers from Oklahoma, Penn State, Ohio State, Florida State, Georgia, Miami (Fla.), Auburn, LSU, Michigan State and more but chose the Mountaineers due to his connection with the coaches and fit in the offense.

Expectations were high but matching those is an entirely different story altogether.

But the Mountaineers need help at the wide receiver position and Prather brings a unique skill set to the table with his combination of abilities despite only being a first-year player.

Prather, 6-foot-4, 210-pounds, caught 42 passes for 895 yards and 9 touchdowns during his junior season but was unable to play in his final year due to COVID-19. Still, that didn’t slow down the belief that Prather was primed for a role early on in his career given his size and skill set.

The Rivals.com four-star prospect enrolled in Morgantown in January and didn’t disappoint.

“They gave me the job of really kind of mentoring him when he first came in January and he’s done everything I told him to do,” said experienced wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton said. “My coach is hard on me coaching him and he knows there can’t be a drop off when somebody comes out of the game.”

That attitude has led to Prather playing at a high level in his first fall camp as Ford-Wheaton has watched his pupil embrace the role and soak up everything that he can on and off the field.

But it’s his natural abilities that have so many excited including Ford-Wheaton who isn’t any slouch himself in the athleticism department. In fact, he was recently named to Bruce Feldman’s annual Freak List due to his numbers in the weight room and in testing.

“He’s really twitchy. To be that big you usually see a lot of straight-line speed or just doing crazy catches. But he’s fast, twitchy as a slot player and he’s 6-foot-4, 210-pounds. He’s just scratching the surface right now,” he said. “He’s just had five or six months of training, so his potential is through the roof.”

Prather won’t have to realize all of that this season, but any contribution could be considered a major boost for the Mountaineers pass catching corps looking for more explosive options.

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