West Virginia building quality depth in the secondary
West Virginia has been working to improve the available depth in the secondary.
The Mountaineers have been aggressive in that department adding nine different players between the cornerback and safety spots with both high school and transfer options.
In the transfer market, the coaching staff was able to add four in Ayden Garnes, TJ Crandall, Garnett Hollis and Jaheem Joseph.
Garnes, 6-foot, 170-pounds, is coming off a season where he recorded 51 tackles, 5 tackles for loss, 2 interceptions and a sack during his sophomore campaign.
The Philadelphia native played a total of 688 snaps and graded out as one of the highest players on the Dukes' roster. His efforts earned him first-team All-NEC honors at the cornerback and nickel spot at the FCS level. He also has the bonus of two years left in his career and the Mountaineers got a look at him when they played the Dukes.
"Actually, played against him, watched him on film when he decided to go into the portal. He did a really good job, he’s really fast. He’s put on about 15 pounds since he’s been here. He’s a tough kid," secondary coach ShaDon Brown said.
Crandall, 6-foot-1, 185-pounds, received offers from a long list of schools including West Virginia, UCLA, Michigan State, Louisville, North Carolina State, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, California, Purdue, Cincinnati, Wake Forest, Arizona State and Oregon State after entering the transfer portal Dec. 4.
Crandall played 10 games for the Rams as a true freshman last season where he recorded 19 tackles and an interception while earning high coverage grades. A big cornerback, Crandall possesses impressive ball skills and given the fact he had three years remaining in his career made him even more of a priority.
"He’s doing a good job of learning what we’re doing. He’s elite fast and has great length," Brown said.
Hollis, 6-foot-2, 205-pounds, has the length and size that West Virginia has prioritized in the secondary under the coaching staff along with much-needed experience. The Tennessee native appeared in 26 games during his time with Northwestern including starting all 13 games during his final year with the program where he recorded 49 tackles and an interception.
Once Hollis entered the transfer portal in February, West Virginia jumped into the mix with a scholarship offer and was able to close the deal just a few days later.
Brown simply refers to him as the steal of the portal.
"He can really run step for step. EJ Horton is a 4.3 guy at receiver, and he is step for step with him on any go ball so he can really run, and I think the sky is the limit for him," Brown said.
Joseph, 5-foot-10, 190-pounds, spent four seasons at Northwestern where he put together his best campaign in his final season with the program with 24 tackles and 3 interceptions. He spent the majority of his time on the field at free safety but has the flexibility that the coaches wanted to find with strong numbers both in coverage and tackling this past season for the Wildcats.
The Miami native became a focus of the coaches after entering the transfer portal Feb. 5 and was offered just five days later. From there, he would commit nine days later.
"Jaheem is playing deep safety for us, and he has the position flex to play spear or cat safety," Brown said.
That doesn’t even include the high school options that inked with the program in December such as Cincinnati (Oh.) Colerain 2024 athlete Zae Jennings, Douglasville (Ga.) Douglas County 2024 safety Israel Boyce, Pittsburgh (Pa.) Bishop Canevin 2024 safety Jason Cross, Dunnellon (Fla.) 2024 athlete Chris Henry and Waldorf (Md.) St. Charles 2024 defensive back Keyon Washington.
Out of that list, both Jennings and Boyce enrolled in January to start their careers with the Mountaineers.
"It's going really fast for them but from a physicality standpoint those two guys aren’t afraid of contact and they’re strong at the point of attack," Brown said.
The effort has been intentional by the coaching staff in order to improve the rooms in the secondary and the work isn’t done as the coaching staff is considering adding several other transfer pieces. And so far it's seemed to work.
"This is the deepest we’ve been and we may even continue to add to that room but this is the deepest we’ve been," head coach Neal Brown said.
The focus has been on speed and length instead of simply trying to recruit players to certain spots. That way the coaches can move those pieces around in the spring, summer and fall camp to find their best fit instead of pigeonholing them into one or two positions to provide more flexibility in the back end.
West Virginia also simply needed more quality depth that can play and if you take safety for example last year between Anthony Wilson (787 snaps), Aubrey Burks (703 snaps) and Marcis Floyd (492 snaps) they were asked to fill major roles with little depth behind them but that should change this fall.
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