West Virginia head coach Neal Brown looks for ways to be creative when it comes to building a roster.
One of those has been showing up on the recruiting trail this cycle as the Mountaineers have gone outside the country to identify talent in both the current and future recruiting classes.
This summer alone the program has already landed a commitment from Amsterdam native Jairo Faverus, a cornerback, in June and followed that up with a pledge from Victor Wikstrom, a 2021 tight end commitment, from Sweden.
Both players camped at West Virginia June 14 as part of the Premier Players International bus tour which made the rounds to schools all across the nation showcasing European born players to try to open doors to play college football in the United States.
The program is headed by Brandon Collier, a former player at Massachusetts, and while the two never played together there is a connection there given the fact that Brown finished his college career with the Minutemen.
Collier traveled overseas to play professionally and noticed some of the high level talent overseas so he took to finding a way to help cultivate that.
He started PPI in 2017 and holds camps throughout major European cities in order to find players.
“The talent level in Europe is high,” Collier said.
West Virginia is just one of a number of college programs that is looking to tap into that said talent base and some of that is trying to get ahead of the curve by Brown’s own admission.
“We’re always looking for what’s next. We want to be different. We had a chance to see several European players, and not just European players, but international players in general compete at camps over the summer,” he said.
Both Faverus and Wikstrom earned scholarship offers from the Mountaineers following their performances at one of those camps. Both players were among the tops in attendance not only in testing but on the field efforts and while Brown can’t speak specifically on unsigned prospects he did comment on what he's seen on European players in general that have camped in Morgantown.
“I was impressed not only with their athletic ability, but also how they competed and their work ethic and overall football knowledge,” he said.
And with two European-born players already in the fold, could this be perhaps the start of something even more as the process continues to evolve?
“That’s something we’re going to continue to explore,” Brown said.
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