West Virginia keeping state's best home, developing program
Neal Brown understands the importance of in-state representation on the roster.
“I think it’s critical, I really do,” he said.
Especially at a place like West Virginia, where the Mountaineers football program represents not only just a community or city, but the entire state. It’s something not too distant from what he experienced growing up in the state of Kentucky, so it didn’t need any further explanation when he took the job.
“Not only how you play the game from an identity standpoint, you need to match the state, but you need to be well represented from the state,” he said. “We’ve been fortunate.”
Brown and his coaching staff has made it a point to dive head first into recruiting all of the power four players within the Mountain State during his tenure and for the most part those efforts have paid off. West Virginia has signed almost all of the players they’ve targeted within the state’s borders since the initial recruiting class he inherited and that hasn’t been by accident.
“We’ve been fortunate. We’ve done a good job getting almost every one of the in-state players that’s a power five player here,” Brown said.
Not only has West Virginia been able to keep many of the immediate scholarship athletes home either through high school or transfers such as offensive lineman Zach Frazier, offensive lineman Wyatt Milum defensive lineman Sean Martin, offensive lineman Doug Nester, offensive lineman Xavier Bausley and several others but also have effectively utilized the walk-on program.
Players that have come from that include wide receiver Hudson Clement, wide receiver Preston Fox, offensive lineman Nick Malone, linebacker Caden Biser and several other contributors up and down the roster. Each of those names listed have earned scholarship offers with the Mountaineers.
“The walk-on program, especially the past three years has been really productive,” Brown said.
Some of those names listed have developed into key pieces to the roster during their time here which is exactly what you want to see from in-state prospects. They haven't all worked out but there have certainly been more hits than misses.
The Mountaineers have continued that approach in the most recent classes as well signing linebacker Curtis Jones from Cabell Midland, athlete Keyshawn Robinson from Jefferson and wide receiver Dom Collins from Princeton in the 2024 class, while having commitments from the state’s top two players in Hurricane wide receiver Tyshawn Dues and Huntington safety Zah Jackson in the current class.
It’s been a focus to target and attract as many of the talented players as possible from West Virginia in order to help to cultivate the culture in the program.
That’s because those players don’t need any courses on what the program means to the state and the people which allows them to connect with others about the importance of the Mountaineers.
It’s all a part of a vision that Brown has had since he first arrived and it’s now playing out into reality.
“If we can be close to ¼ of our team scholarships either they came here on scholarship or they grew while they were here and earned the opportunity to be on scholarship that’s pretty good,” he said.
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