West Virginia won’t have wide receiver Traylon Ray for the remainder of the season.
Ray was injured with 5:41 remaining in the third quarter against Baylor and he was carted off the field with a leg injury after hauling in 3 catches for 22 yards and a touchdown. The sophomore entered the game as the leading receiver for the Mountaineers with 25 catches for 404 yards and 3 scores.
The injury will cost him the final two regular season games and a potential bowl match up.
“Yeah, he won't be back this year. Yeah, he will not be back. It's bad. He'll recover. He'll be fine, but he won't play this year,” head coach Neal Brown said.
The injury is one that will affect West Virginia in a variety of ways as Ray was one of the most reliable pass catchers on the roster and was especially adept at winning against man coverage. It also made things difficult in the moment because of the nature of how it unfolded.
“It not only hurt us because he was winning a lot, but it hurt us emotionally. We had some guys that really struggled with that because it was visible on the field what the injury was and our skill groups really close and that emotionally that was tough to overcome,” Brown said.
That was evident when the entire offense came over to the cart to see Ray.
It was something similar to what the Mountaineers dealt with after Trey Lathan was injured against TCU last season but the game continued and the players had to regroup quickly.
“I think the guys did a pretty good job of kind of flushing that and then, you know, just kind of trying to go make plays and do their jobs for No. 7,” quarterback Garrett Greene said.
The Mountaineers have two games remaining and will need other pass catchers to step in his absence. That will likely come in the form of transfer wide receiver Justin Robinson who has played well at times on top of potentially welcoming back another transfer in Jaden Bray who has missed time due to injury.
Both of those players are going to be asked to step into a bigger role beside Hudson Clement.
“I think that’s the one that really has to step up. I hope we get Jaden Bray back this week. If we can get him back that’ll help,” Brown said.
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