West Virginia must replace three of the top five pass catchers from a season ago which opens windows for others to emerge in that position room.

At the end of the season, Winston Wright, Sean Ryan and Isaiah Esdale all exited the football program through the transfer portal which meant a lot of the production in the room went with them.

The Mountaineers return only 47-percent of the 228 receptions from a season ago and 48-percent of the total 2,852 yards leaving a lot of room for players to move up the depth chart.

One of those is sophomore Kaden Prather.

The highly touted high school prospect saw only 253 offensive snaps across 9 contests last year resulting in a dozen grabs for only 124 scoreless yards. Two-thirds of those grabs came in two contests against Texas and Kansas State and 108 of the yardage total.

But now Prather is expected to be one of the primary threats for the Mountaineers at the position after a strong off-season that has him in the best shape of his career.

There is no question that Prather brings a unique element given his 6-foot-4 frame and ceiling with his overall skill set that garnered a long list of scholarship offers. Glimpses of that was on display the year prior, but the Mountaineers are hoping that becomes more consistent.

“He’s had a lot of peak performances. Now the big thing is stacking them on top of each other,” position coach Tony Washington said. “When he’s playing and he’s confident he’s as good as anybody we have in that room. So, for him that’s been the work is stacking them up.”

Washington has taken Prather under his wing and made it a habit to talk to him prior to practice daily in order to lay out the focal points of the day. For example, one day it’s to play fast and then it’s to use a certain technique and things continue to build out from there.

Prather figures to be a major piece of the puzzle for West Virginia and so far things have certainly moved in that direction through the early stages of camp.

“He’s so talented things come easy for him and he makes the game harder than it needs to be. For him it’s really understanding I have all this talent but I can’t use everything I know every route,” he said.

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