The philosophy is simple when it comes to playing true freshmen for head coach Neal Brown.
Play your best players and if it comes down to choosing between talent or experience, the former is typically the best path despite some of the challenges on the way to getting to where you want to be.
“You’re going to take some lumps. There’s going to be lessons, sometimes hard lessons that those players have to learn but you want to play talent,” Brown said.
The Mountaineers have followed that route nine games into the year. Sometimes by necessity or injury, but a number of true freshmen are seeing significant roles this season.
“If you look at it mostly offensive skill positions is where we’re mainly playing them and I think that bodes well,” Brown said.
When both wide receivers Jeremiah Aaron and Cortez Braham elected to sit out the remainder of the year and self-redshirt before their four-game limit passed, it thrust both Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher into larger roles perhaps before they were ready. Both were going to play quite a bit this season regardless of what unfolded, but it just expedited the process.
Ray has collected 10 catches for 108 yards and a score while even throwing a pass in 137 snaps, while Gallagher has accounted for 124 all-purpose yards across 168 offensive snaps. Perhaps most impressive is that both have done so without the benefit of spring ball under their belts.
Both are players that are good with the ball in their hands and as they develop physically and get stronger should have impactful careers in Morgantown.
“It was clear they were talented and let’s put them in position to have success and where their confidence can continue to grow. And if we’ve got to really lean on them, let’s lean on them,” he said.
Another in running back Jahiem White had to learn how to prepare better during the week and take care of his body but has seen both his role and opportunities grow substantially of late in the backfield. Over the past two games, White has rushed for 232 yards on 25 carries with a score.
The Mountaineers needed more explosion in the backfield and White has provided just that.
“I’m zero surprised he’s kind of burst onto the scene. He’s really talented,” Brown said.
On defense, linebacker Ben Cutter has been thrust into a much larger role than initially expected after starter Tray Lathan was lost for the season due to a leg injury. Over the past two games, the North Carolina native has played his best football of his career across 87 snaps.
During that time, he has recorded 8 tackles and a sack. Brown believes that had fellow linebacker Josiah Trotter not gotten injured during the spring he took would be on the field this season.
Others aren’t as noticeable, with true freshman running back DJ Oliver making his impact on special teams and the coaching staff will need to decide if he is going to play the rest of the year out there with some expanded offensive duties or maintain a year of eligibility.
The coaching staff also is very high on some of their players that will definitely be redshirting this season such as the young offensive linemen in the program like tackle Johnny Williams and interior player Nick Krahe along with interior defensive lineman Corey McIntyre and edge rusher James Heard.
“Some of these guys that are redshirting are going to be really, really good players here,” Brown said. “I feel really good about our freshman class.”
West Virginia has done their job with the evaluation process, but the focus also will turn to retention. And as part of that process Brown admitted that after the season the challenge is going to be ensuring that their future growth does occur inside the West Virginia program.
“We have to do some things after the season to retain them, but that’s the world we live in,” he said.
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