WVU football: Despite Portal, WVU has quality at wideout positions

Despite its losses, West Virginia still has experience at receiver, but to get the necessary depth, it is going to require some youngsters to step up.

Here’s a look at who’s back, who’s gone and who’s coming in:

Wide receivers returning: C.J. Cole (sophomore), Bryce Ford-Wheaton (senior), Preston Fox (sophomore), Sam James (senior), Nick Maher (redshirt frershman), Graeson Malashevich (junior), Kaden Prather (sophomore), Todd Simons (redshirt freshman), Reese Smith (sophomore), Joseph Udoh (redshirt freshman), Mike Evans (redshirt freshman)

Wide receivers departing: Sam Brown (redshirt freshman), Isaiah Esdale (junior), Sean Ryan (senior), Winston Wright (junior)

Newcomers: Jeremiah Aaron (sophomore), Cortez Braham (junior), C.J. Donaldson (freshman), Jarel Williams (freshman)

Departures

Slot receiver Wright, who has transferred to Florida State, was WVU’s leading pass catcher in each of the past two seasons. He had 47 receptions for 553 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games in 2020, then added 63 catches for 686 yards and five TDs in 2021. His catch total last year tied him for 17th in WVU history for a single season, and his 129 career receptions for 1,336 career receiving yards are 14th and 30th on West Virginia’s all-time list, respectively.

Ryan, a native of Brooklyn who is transferring to Rutgers to be closer to home for his final year in college, had the fifth-most receptions among the Mountaineers last season with 25 for 399 yards and three TDs. In his career, the one-time transfer from Temple totaled 69 catches for 882 yards and three touchdowns.

Esdale spent four years at WVU after one in junior college. Due to the COVID-inspired eligibility-free 2020 season, he still has one year of college eligibility remaining, and he’s going to spend that at Rice. A part-timer for most of his first three seasons with the Mountaineers, Esdale became a regular in the rotation this past year. Though he started just one game in 2021, he finished with the fourth-most receptions on the team, snagging 29 passes for 362 yards. In his career, he had 56 receptions for 648 yards and two touchdowns.

Brown leaves West Virginia with only a few tangible accomplishments (10 catches for 108 yards in the past two years) but a feeling of unresolved potential. After entering the transfer portal in early November, Brown declared he is moving to the University of Houston.

Between them, the four former Mountaineer receivers played in 96 games at WVU and started 36 of those, the most coming from Ryan (20 starts in 28 games played) and Wright (14 starts in 31 games played).

Returning

Between them, James and Ford-Wheaton have played in a combined 72 games at WVU, starting 43 of them. With 21 and 22 starts respectively, each could become among the most experienced receivers ever at West Virginia. Because of the eligibility-free year in 2020, both could play in not only 2022 but also 2023, so they could eclipse many records by the time they’re done.

A 6-foot, 183-pound native of Georgia, James has been a huge part of West Virginia’s pass game since 2019, when he had the best receiving season ever for a Mountaineer true or redshirt freshman, catching a team-best 69 passes for 677 yards. As a sophomore in 2020, Brown had what he readily admits was a disappointing year, finishing the 10-game season with 31 receptions for 300 yards and two touchdowns. He bounced back with a strong effort in 2021, though, catching 42 passes (tied for second on the team) for 507 yards (third) and five touchdowns (tied for first). For his career, James already is tied for 10th on WVU’s career reception list with 144.

Ford-Wheaton didn’t make the same splash as James did as a redshirt freshman in 2019 (12 catches for 201 yards and two TDs), but his 50-yard catch-and-run on a pass from Jarret Doege for a fourth-quarter touchdown at Kansas State lifted West Virginia to a 24-20 upset of the Wildcats. The North Carolina native showed improvement as a sophomore, finishing 2020 with 27 catches for 416 yards and three TDs, then last season he displayed his high-end potential by catching 42 passes (tied with James for the second-most on the team) for 575 yards (second) and three touchdowns.

Ford-Wheaton is the latest in a line of Mountaineer athletic royalty. His grandfather, Garrett Ford Sr., was one of the greatest running backs ever at WVU, rushing for 2,165 yards from 1965-67, and he also spent more than four decades working at his alma mater, first as an assistant football coach and then as an academic counselor and ultimately an assistant athletic director before retiring in 2011. Ford-Wheaton’s uncle, Garrett Ford Jr., also was an excellent running back for West Virginia (1,554 yards from 1989-92), and his mother, Tracie Ford, was a member of the Mountaineer track team.

Having obtained his bachelors degree in sports management from WVU this past December, Ford-Wheaton has 81 receptions for 1,192 yards in his college career.

James and Ford-Wheaton aren’t the only WVU receivers with talent and game experience, though.

Smith has played in all 23 games since arriving at West Virginia from Danville, Kentucky, two years ago, starting three of those. Also a valuable special-teams player, Smith recorded 11 catches for 128 yards as a true freshman in 2020 and 12 for 124 yards in 2021.

Malashevich also will be in the mix for more opportunities at the slot receiver. WVU’s holder the past two seasons for place-kicks, the Spring Valley graduate has had limited opportunities on offense (one career catch for 30 yards). He was placed on scholarship in the fall and he very well could start seeing increased playing time at the slot.

Fox is another possible contributor at the slot. The Morgantown High product has seen a good bit of action on special teams during his time at WVU, but he also has one career reception, hauling in a pass and taking it for an 8-yard gain against Long Island last season.

While Smith, Malashevich and Fox jockey for time at slot receiver, Prather is almost certainly going to be a major component of WVU’s 2022 receiving corps, likely at one of the outside receiver spots.

The four-star receiving prospect from Maryland enrolled at WVU in January of 2021 and benefited from the opportunity of going through spring practice and the offseason strength and conditioning program last year. Still, it took him a little while to get adjusted to the college level, as a combination of inexperience and injury limited him in the first half of the season. The blue-chip recruit played in every regular-season game, but other than two catches for 33 yards against Long Island, he didn’t have any other receptions in West Virginia’s first seven contests. After that, though, it was a different story, as his opportunities increased significantly. He recorded 10 receptions for 142 yards in WVU’s final five regular-season games, including four catches for 60 yards at Kansas State and four for 48 yards against Texas.

Prather received scholarship offers out of high school from a who’s-who list that included Alabama, Baylor, Georgia, LSU, Michigan, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State and others. He signed with West Virginia, though, and now is expected to be a huge part of the Mountaineers’ aerial attack this year and for several to come.

For added depth, WVU returns several walk-ons who also will try to work their way into the rotation this spring. Cole played in four games this past season, most of that coming on special teams. In addition, Maher, Simons and Udoh were first-year players who did not see any game action and ultimately redshirted. Each has good size, particularly the 6-foot-9 Udoh, who is a graduate of Nitro High School, so any or all of them could eventually develop into productive receivers for the Mountaineers. West Virginia added another walk-on at the wide receiver position this January, when Evans transferred from Robert Morris.

Incoming

West Virginia also has secured four newcomers for its wide receiver room. One is already enrolled at WVU — Williams, from Saraland, Alabama — and the other three are slated to arrive in the summer — Aaron from Navarro (Texas) College, Braham from Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College and Donaldson of Miami.

Williams graduated from high school a semester early to get a jump start on his college career. A class 6A all-state honoree in Alabama, he had 132 receptions for 2,077 yards and 29 touchdowns in his three varsity seasons at Saraland. A three-star prospect, he received scholarship offers from Florida State, Iowa, Indiana, Kansas State, Kentucky, Tennessee and others, but picked West Virginia. With the Mountaineers’ lack of depth at receiver, Williams very well could be someone who receives immediate playing time.

The same is true for Aaron, though the fact that he won’t arrive at WVU until the summer may hold him back some. Aaron has two seasons of junior college experience under his belt. A first-team all-Southwest Junior College Football Conference selection in 2021, Aaron led the nation’s jucos in all-purpose yards (1,775 with 911 receiving, 144 on punt returns and 720 on kickoff returns) last year. He had 49 catches in 10 games in 2021 and 28 for 419 yards as a freshman in 2020.

Even though Aaron won’t have the benefit of spring practice at WVU, he’ll likely get a chance for playing time early in 2022, not just at receiver but also as a kickoff and punt returner.

Donaldson, who also is scheduled to enroll at WVU this summer, is likely going to get his initial shot at the receiver position with the Mountaineers, though he may eventually grow into a tight end/H-back. He was mainly a tight end early in his high school career but spent most of his senior season at Gulliver Prep at receiver. He thrived in that role, hauling in 81 passes for 1,164 yards and 13 TDs last fall in helping the Raiders to a 9-2 record. Donaldson committed to Tulane last May, but after his monster senior season, he began to get Power Five offers from the likes of West Virginia, Florida, Florida State, Indiana and Ole Miss. He decided to follow his Gulliver teammate Trey Lathan, a linebacker, to WVU, where he’ll likely start out at wide receiver but eventually could move to tight end.

The latest addition to the Mountaineers’ receiving corps, Braham, signed with WVU on Feb. 2 at the beginning of the traditional commitment period. He comes to West Virginia after playing three seasons at Hutchinson Community College — he used an extra juco year as the junior college level, like the NCAA, deemed the 2020 season an eligibility-free year because of COVID.

In his three years at Hutch, Braham caught 68 passes for 1,387 yards and 17 touchdowns in 26 games. The past season, in helping the Blue Dragons to a 9-2 record, he finished with 32 receptions, 723 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Braham initially committed to Buffalo last spring, but he had a change of heart in December. The second time around he narrowed his list to Colorado State, UNLV, SMU and Temple before picking WVU.

Braham attended Westwood High School in Blytheville, South Carolina, where he had 79 career catches for 1,370 yards and 17 TDs.

With nine scholarship players and four returning walk-ons in the receiver room, West Virginia may look for more depth at that position before the 2022 season begins. As is normal, there figure to be several new walk-ons added, but the Mountaineers may also search for another scholarship-worthy high schooler, junior college prospect and/or four-year transfer. Any newcomer won’t be able to enroll at WVU until the summer, but the Mountaineers could seemingly use more depth at the receiver position.

WVU also is going to need a new assistant coaching these receivers, as Gerad Parker, who had spent the past two seasons as the Mountaineers’ receiver coach, is headed to Notre Dame, where he’s going to work with the tight ends. To fill that role at West Virginia, Tony Washington recently was hired after spending the past two years coaching receivers at Coastal Carolina.