• 11 months ago
ITG 140 - Recruiting Insight with Trey Neyer
Transcript
00:00:00 (upbeat music)
00:00:02 - In the gun episode 140 here
00:00:07 of your new favorite WVU football podcast.
00:00:10 We got the band back together.
00:00:11 I'm Wesley Uler, got the best teammates in the business.
00:00:14 The signal caller, Jed Drenning
00:00:16 and the runaway beer truck, Owen Schmidt.
00:00:18 And this edition of ITG as always brought to you in part
00:00:22 by our friends at BetOnline where the game starts.
00:00:25 And gentlemen, we've got a jam packed episode today.
00:00:28 Trey Nyer, the director of recruiting for WVU football.
00:00:31 If you've been rocking with us here for a little bit on ITG
00:00:34 you might remember Trey.
00:00:35 He joined us last year.
00:00:36 Well, he's gonna do so again this year.
00:00:38 Break down this class for this part
00:00:43 of the national signing day class
00:00:45 that just transpired a couple of weeks ago
00:00:47 for the Mountaineers.
00:00:48 We'll get into all of the newest Mountaineers
00:00:50 with our buddy Trey here in just a few minutes.
00:00:53 But as we always do fellas,
00:00:54 a couple of headlines to get us started.
00:00:56 And NCAA football fan nation doing a preseason top 25 poll
00:01:01 and the Mountaineers for the upcoming season, I should say.
00:01:05 Right, preseason top 25 for this upcoming 2024
00:01:07 college football season.
00:01:09 And the Mountaineers checking in at number 13, gentlemen.
00:01:13 We've seen some of these way too early polls, right?
00:01:16 I mean, everybody and their mother does one of these
00:01:19 way too early polls and they'll probably do another one
00:01:21 again in a couple of months and then over the summer
00:01:23 and all those different things.
00:01:24 But we've seen WVU in the 19 to 25-ish range
00:01:29 on a good majority of these.
00:01:32 But 13th, Jed, I think that's as high as we've seen
00:01:37 the flying WV on one of these preseason polls so far.
00:01:40 - It is and you get the sense that,
00:01:44 which one did this come from?
00:01:45 It was, what's 247?
00:01:47 It was NCAA football nation.
00:01:49 - NCAA football nation, yeah, something like that.
00:01:51 - And he did a good job on Twitter.
00:01:53 If you wanna follow him, I'm looking at it now.
00:01:55 It's @NCAAFNation247.
00:01:58 He did a good job of explaining his reasoning
00:02:01 behind some of the teams that might have been
00:02:03 a little out of place from what you expected.
00:02:06 And he did seem to make some ambitious choices.
00:02:09 I mean, at the top, pretty much what you'd expect.
00:02:11 You got Georgia number one, Ohio State number two,
00:02:14 Texas with everything, they have come back three,
00:02:16 Oregon, Ole Miss.
00:02:17 No real surprises there.
00:02:19 But he has Michigan at number eight.
00:02:22 And he talked about that because of the uncertainty
00:02:24 of hardball, you're losing your quarterback,
00:02:27 you're losing some key pieces to that championship team.
00:02:30 So why is Virginia parked at number 13?
00:02:33 It is, it's the highest we've seen,
00:02:36 but coming from a much more ambitious or aggressive poll.
00:02:40 It's also a poll that has Virginia Tech ranked at 23.
00:02:43 I mean, there's, don't look now,
00:02:45 a little bit of buzz in Blacksburg
00:02:47 with the way they finished as well as they did.
00:02:49 So there's, the interest is in the extremes.
00:02:52 Like he has Arizona at number 25.
00:02:56 Now, a lot of us have talked about this.
00:02:58 When the coaching change took place
00:03:01 that sent Kalen DeBoer from Washington to Alabama,
00:03:05 that started the shuffle.
00:03:06 The next thing you know, Jed Fish leaves Arizona
00:03:09 and he's off to take the Washington job.
00:03:11 Makes sense, he's a West Coast guy.
00:03:13 He's had success in the West Coast,
00:03:15 recruiting that corridor.
00:03:17 But Arizona, all things being equal,
00:03:20 was kind of poised to become a preseason darling.
00:03:23 I think they were gonna land in a lot of preseason top tens
00:03:26 with what they anticipated to have back and Jed Fish.
00:03:29 But in the modern game, you lose your coach.
00:03:32 Next thing you know, here comes all this disruption.
00:03:34 I saw last night as many as nine Arizona players
00:03:37 hit the portal in a span of 30 minutes.
00:03:39 Same type of thing is happening in Alabama
00:03:42 with the retirement of Nick.
00:03:43 So yeah, it's interesting,
00:03:45 but if anything, it's an indicator
00:03:47 that this isn't Sports Illustrated, this isn't ESPN,
00:03:50 but it's somebody with a pretty big
00:03:53 and significant national following,
00:03:55 putting a poll together that provides some indication
00:03:58 that look, some people are gonna be taking a long,
00:04:00 hard look at West Virginia
00:04:02 because of what we do expect to have back.
00:04:05 And we've talked about it many times.
00:04:06 We have a playmaker at quarterback who finished strong.
00:04:09 And in these types of conversations,
00:04:12 that sometimes tends to carry the day.
00:04:14 In this case, it apparently carried the day
00:04:16 all the way up to 13.
00:04:18 So even when you compare it
00:04:20 to where the other big 12 schools guys,
00:04:23 that's what surprised me the most.
00:04:24 I mean, I'm looking at somewhere, for instance,
00:04:27 Oklahoma State, Kansas State is at 18.
00:04:30 Oklahoma State is at 22.
00:04:32 What do they return, like 20 starters?
00:04:34 So he's giving us more love
00:04:36 than some of these other programs
00:04:37 that return all this talent.
00:04:38 So quite a narrative there, but something tells me
00:04:42 this won't be the only type of thing
00:04:44 we discuss this off season.
00:04:47 I do project, and we've said it on this show before,
00:04:49 guys, I think we're gonna end up landing
00:04:51 in most preseason top 20s or pushing the top 20.
00:04:56 That's what I think.
00:04:57 But also Penn State, by the way, number 10.
00:04:59 So that's a pretty attractive opening matchup here.
00:05:01 Just imagine if it was 10 versus 13,
00:05:03 but what do you guys think?
00:05:04 - We have a chance, baby.
00:05:10 We have a chance.
00:05:12 Now with the 12-man playoff, I mean,
00:05:16 that's intriguing. - We're right there.
00:05:19 - Huh?
00:05:20 - 12-team playoff, we're right there.
00:05:22 We're knocking on the door. - We're right here, dog.
00:05:24 We're right there.
00:05:24 I love it, I love it.
00:05:26 - Yeah, listen, I mean, you look at it, Jed,
00:05:31 you mentioned it, there's a handful of teams
00:05:33 on this list that are on WVU's schedule.
00:05:37 A couple others that are in the big,
00:05:38 not on the schedule this year, but in the big 12, right?
00:05:42 So I mean, it's, I tell you what, I'm with you.
00:05:46 I think we're gonna come down in about the 18 to 23 range,
00:05:51 right, when we get into the official polls,
00:05:54 the ones that, you know, the Associated Press
00:05:56 and the coaches poll and those things.
00:05:58 But it just, man, it just feels good to see the flying WV
00:06:04 and, you know, in these type of conversations again.
00:06:07 I think these things are important too.
00:06:09 Like, don't kid yourself.
00:06:10 Yeah, this, on paper, on Twitter or X or social media,
00:06:15 this means nothing, but it's still at the same time
00:06:18 important 'cause a lot of kids see this stuff.
00:06:20 You know what I mean? - Sure they do.
00:06:21 - You want your logo, you want your brand
00:06:24 on these kinds of lists.
00:06:25 Even though in the long run, even though in the football
00:06:28 field it doesn't really mean anything,
00:06:30 it's still visibility, it's still your logo,
00:06:33 your brand being around a lot of other top brands
00:06:36 and being in these polls of expectations.
00:06:39 - To your point, Wes. - That's where you want it.
00:06:42 - Buzz doesn't need to be formalized buzz.
00:06:45 - Correct. - Because if it makes
00:06:46 its way on social media, these things,
00:06:48 irrespective of whether or not it's the Worldwide Leader
00:06:51 or Sports Illustrated or Fox Sports,
00:06:54 they do tend to gain purchase and create a conversation.
00:06:58 And the next thing you know, as you just talked about,
00:07:00 a lot of eyes of a lot of recruits
00:07:03 land on this type of content.
00:07:05 So it's meaningful in that sense.
00:07:06 And we spent how many minutes, a couple of weeks ago, Wes,
00:07:10 complaining that, well, we didn't really expect
00:07:13 to land in the final top 25, it would have been nice.
00:07:15 We thought we kind of earned it, right?
00:07:17 But at the same time, I went back and looked,
00:07:20 like if you look at this year's preseason top 25,
00:07:24 how many teams were in this year's preseason top 25
00:07:28 that didn't finish last year?
00:07:30 We'll do a separate podcast episode on it,
00:07:32 but I think it was like half a dozen.
00:07:34 So half a dozen teams weren't ranked,
00:07:37 but still ended up in the top 25.
00:07:39 And there's a bit of a narrative or a story
00:07:40 behind how each one did.
00:07:42 But so yeah, you don't have to finish in the top 25
00:07:45 to start in the top 25.
00:07:47 That's what we're driving at.
00:07:48 And I do think we will,
00:07:49 but these types of things make for interesting conversations
00:07:52 and quite frankly, they fill off season content
00:07:54 for podcasts.
00:07:55 - Yes, they do.
00:07:57 Yes, they do.
00:07:57 And like I said, kids see these things,
00:07:59 kids follow these accounts.
00:08:00 So it's always important to have your logo,
00:08:02 to have your brand, to have your name out there.
00:08:04 And in that stratosphere for sure.
00:08:07 There's no negative to that without a doubt.
00:08:11 I'd like to thank you to our friends at Toothman Ford
00:08:13 for being a presenting sponsor
00:08:15 of this year podcast, "In The Gun."
00:08:17 Big shout out to our guy, JR.
00:08:18 We all know cars cost less in Grafton.
00:08:20 They do a lot for us.
00:08:21 They do a lot for WVU student athletes and NIL.
00:08:24 So make sure you're supporting those who support us
00:08:27 and support our student athletes.
00:08:28 And Toothman Ford is certainly at the top of that list.
00:08:31 All right, gentlemen, before we take a break
00:08:32 and get to our buddy, Trey Nyer,
00:08:33 and talk about this newest recruiting class
00:08:36 for the Mountaineers,
00:08:38 you two had yourself some fun
00:08:39 on a little thing called Go Fact Yourself.
00:08:42 Okay, that's F-A-C-T at home.
00:08:45 All right, in case anybody's a radio cut out there.
00:08:47 All right, Go Fact Yourself with Phillip Bowen.
00:08:51 Now to some of you, that name might sound familiar.
00:08:54 Phillip Bowen, wait a second.
00:08:55 I feel like that he's the West Virginia violin guy.
00:08:59 Okay, so you see the TikToks, you see the videos,
00:09:01 he's done performances at Mountaineer Field before
00:09:04 at the tailgates.
00:09:06 He is the guy who plays the violin,
00:09:07 who's always got a West Virginia thing hanging behind him
00:09:10 or a WVU hat or something on.
00:09:12 He was on America's Got Talent, I believe.
00:09:14 He's got millions of followers on social media.
00:09:17 So tell us a little bit about this Go Fact Yourself
00:09:20 with Phillip Bowen, fellas.
00:09:21 Oh, and somebody reached out to me.
00:09:25 I'm trying to remember what the first seed
00:09:29 that was planted here was.
00:09:30 If you do the research, you can follow them on Twitter.
00:09:33 Again, I'm looking at that @gofactyourpod.
00:09:36 And the producers of the show, they're based out of LA.
00:09:41 They reached out and it's a pretty fun thing they do.
00:09:43 What they do is they pit two celebrities against each other.
00:09:46 And in this case, it was West Virginia's own Phillip Bowen,
00:09:49 as you talked about.
00:09:50 You talk about a talented rascal.
00:09:52 Now, if you have not heard Phillip Bowen play the violin,
00:09:55 it doesn't take more than a couple of seconds
00:09:57 to really appreciate what he's got going on there.
00:10:00 So I encourage you to look that up.
00:10:02 Matter of fact, we're gonna work toward,
00:10:04 'cause we think Owen and I forged a bit of a relationship
00:10:06 with him through this experience.
00:10:07 We're gonna try and have him on the podcast
00:10:08 at some point this offseason.
00:10:09 Great dude.
00:10:10 But it was him pitted against an artist named Nafis M. White.
00:10:15 I'm not sure you could find two cats much different
00:10:19 than Nafis M. White and Phillip Bowen, right?
00:10:21 They really weren't.
00:10:23 And so what they did, they structured this in such a way,
00:10:26 they let their celebrities pick their specialty topics
00:10:30 that they know best.
00:10:31 And Phillip chose West Virginia sports,
00:10:34 more specifically West Virginia football.
00:10:36 So then what they do,
00:10:37 and this is kind of cool how they go about it.
00:10:39 They reach out, and this is where it gets scary.
00:10:40 They reach out to experts on that topic.
00:10:43 So the next thing you know,
00:10:45 they're bringing in me and the runaway beer truck
00:10:47 as the West Virginia football experts.
00:10:50 Owen, let's hear your first thoughts here.
00:10:53 - No, it was cool.
00:10:54 It was a neat little gig and Phillip was awesome.
00:10:59 He's such a tremendous talent.
00:11:01 You guys gotta check out his old canal song
00:11:04 that just came out.
00:11:05 And he, him and actually Charles Whistley,
00:11:10 God wouldn't get down on that tune.
00:11:13 That's fresh on iTunes.
00:11:14 You guys can check all that out and stuff.
00:11:17 But dude, what a cool dude.
00:11:20 Mrs. White, what was her talent again?
00:11:22 It was super crazy.
00:11:23 - She did art with hair.
00:11:24 - And she had it hanging behind her.
00:11:28 - Yeah, she did.
00:11:29 - Yeah, we're gonna have to put some of these images up.
00:11:30 Skyler, we're gonna have to put some graphics up
00:11:33 for this episode, yeah.
00:11:34 - It was so cool.
00:11:36 She's got a hell of a talent too.
00:11:38 - Talented lady.
00:11:40 - Completely different skills, but really neat.
00:11:43 And it was cool.
00:11:44 I mean, it was cool that they, I don't know,
00:11:47 randomly chose us.
00:11:49 That was, you know, it was kind of neat.
00:11:52 It was, they reached, we taped this in the middle of the season.
00:11:55 - That's a loose interpretation of the word expert there.
00:11:57 I tell you what, fellas.
00:11:59 - You're not kidding.
00:12:00 And they reached out to us.
00:12:02 It was still during the season.
00:12:03 When was it, late in the season, football season,
00:12:05 we taped this.
00:12:06 So it wasn't like we weren't busy.
00:12:08 But it sounded like a neat thing.
00:12:10 And of course, Philip Bowen's involved.
00:12:12 West Virginia guy.
00:12:13 Yeah, absolutely, you want to be a part of it.
00:12:15 And so we took part in it
00:12:17 and they gave us, the podcast, a lot of love.
00:12:20 ITG got a lot of love on that thing.
00:12:22 They promoted the daylights out of it.
00:12:23 And this has a big following.
00:12:25 I mean, they have a big social media presence.
00:12:28 They have a big YouTube following.
00:12:29 Go Fact Yourself does a great job.
00:12:31 And we even had some commenters that listened
00:12:34 to the podcast and couldn't believe their worlds collided
00:12:36 because they were fans of both Go Fact Yourself
00:12:39 and In the Gun.
00:12:40 And they were shocked to hear me and Owen on there,
00:12:43 but they were giving us love.
00:12:44 Like we were even, In the Gun was even one
00:12:45 of the tribute questions they asked Philip.
00:12:48 So it was really kind of neat the way they did it.
00:12:50 But it was fun.
00:12:52 And they asked the question,
00:12:54 they even asked him what was his,
00:12:55 you know, the vehicular nickname given to Owen Schmidt
00:12:58 following his big run.
00:13:00 It was neat how they did it.
00:13:01 It was a fun little experience
00:13:03 and we got to be part of it.
00:13:05 Where can we find it?
00:13:08 Is it on YouTube?
00:13:09 Is it where you get your podcast?
00:13:09 Yeah, it's on YouTube.
00:13:10 Where can people find this?
00:13:11 And you know what?
00:13:12 We've also on our own account,
00:13:14 matter of fact, let me go ahead and do that.
00:13:15 I'll pin that tweet on our own account.
00:13:18 So when people go to In the Gun at Twitter,
00:13:21 our own Twitter handle, @InTheGunPodcast,
00:13:25 we'll pin that tweet up top
00:13:27 so you can see that episode of Go Fact Yourself
00:13:29 and check out what they had going with Philip Bowen
00:13:32 and me and Owen and Nafis M. White.
00:13:35 And Nafis M. White had a musical expert on her questioning.
00:13:40 And so yeah, we'll post it up there.
00:13:42 But in the meantime, we'll also have Skylar
00:13:45 throw a few pictures up for those watching on YouTube
00:13:47 that can kind of enjoy what we were saying, right Owen?
00:13:51 - Oh, absolutely, absolutely.
00:13:56 Good times, appreciate it.
00:13:58 - That might not be the last you hear.
00:14:00 Little tease here, all right, little tease.
00:14:02 That might not be the next couple of weeks,
00:14:04 coming months here on ITG
00:14:06 as we plan out our off-season content.
00:14:09 Might not be the last you hear of Philip Bowen.
00:14:12 Might not be the last you hear of Charles Wesley Godwin
00:14:14 here on this podcast.
00:14:15 All right, that's all I'm gonna say.
00:14:16 That's all I'm gonna say.
00:14:17 We will confirm when we have final details.
00:14:21 Another thank you to our friends at Fortis
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00:14:35 some good recruiting conversation on the other side.
00:14:37 You wanna hear about all the newest faces,
00:14:39 the names, the young men who are becoming part
00:14:42 of the Mountaineer football program.
00:14:43 Well, who better than to go to
00:14:45 than the source, the director of recruiting, Trey Nye.
00:14:48 He will join us on the other side.
00:14:49 When we return, you are in the gun.
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00:15:21 - For more West Virginia Mountaineer football content,
00:15:26 be sure to follow us on Twitter @inthegunpodcast.
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00:16:39 you just gotta be a jack of all trades type.
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00:17:04 - Back in the gun here
00:17:05 and rapidly becoming one of our new favorite traditions
00:17:09 on your new favorite WVU football podcast.
00:17:11 My buddy, Trey Nyer.
00:17:13 Like I said earlier in the show in our first segment,
00:17:15 if you've been rocking and rolling with us
00:17:17 throughout the, what, year and a half,
00:17:19 two year history of this podcast,
00:17:20 you'll remember Trey.
00:17:21 He joined us around this same time last year.
00:17:23 He's the director of recruiting for WVU football.
00:17:26 And once again, is gonna sit down with us here
00:17:28 for a little bit and discuss this class
00:17:30 for the Mountaineers.
00:17:31 Trey, I know that you're kind of,
00:17:34 I mean, listen, year round is busy for you guys,
00:17:36 but this is maybe the time
00:17:37 that you start to be able to breathe a little bit.
00:17:40 But I appreciate you taking some time for us here
00:17:42 and joining us once again this year.
00:17:44 Thank you.
00:17:45 - Yeah, absolutely.
00:17:46 Happy to be on guys.
00:17:47 Really appreciated it last year.
00:17:48 It was fun.
00:17:50 I'm looking forward to it.
00:17:52 - From a timing standpoint,
00:17:53 we just thought it made more sense this year.
00:17:55 We had a bowl game.
00:17:57 It was just so much going on for you and everything else.
00:18:00 And you and I talked about it
00:18:02 and we were in no mad rush leading up to the bowl game.
00:18:05 Right after we put the recruiting show to bed,
00:18:08 after NSD, we're like, hey, let's take a deep breath.
00:18:10 We'll revisit this in January
00:18:12 when nobody else is talking about it
00:18:14 and kind of get a fresh jump on it.
00:18:15 But let's start with this big picture.
00:18:18 College football's obviously
00:18:21 always been a personnel driven game.
00:18:23 I mean, it's always been in large measure
00:18:26 about the Jimmies and the Joes.
00:18:27 But what it hasn't been has been about
00:18:30 to the extent that it is now,
00:18:32 roster management at large.
00:18:35 I mean, this big piece that so much has to be done
00:18:39 every day of the calendar year,
00:18:41 the coordination between you and Drew Fabiani, our GM.
00:18:45 Drew has discussed that when you're putting together
00:18:51 a roster, here's where it's similar to the NFL.
00:18:53 In the NFL, you're looking for free agents
00:18:55 and you're looking for rookie draftees.
00:18:56 In college, you're looking for portal kids
00:19:01 and you're looking for high school signees.
00:19:03 So let's start again from a big picture standpoint
00:19:06 between you and Drew, the coordination that it takes
00:19:09 to satisfy all the roster needs that we're going to have,
00:19:12 which is dynamic and ever-changing.
00:19:14 And how do you guys handle that?
00:19:16 The conversation that you might have,
00:19:17 the meetings that you might have, comparing notes?
00:19:20 - Yeah, yeah.
00:19:21 It's, man, over the last year, it's probably become,
00:19:25 you know, the roster management piece
00:19:26 has become the biggest thing that we do, right?
00:19:29 Outside of recruiting and evaluating
00:19:31 and making sure that we're on the right guys.
00:19:33 And it used to be, right, like you get your class counter
00:19:38 at the beginning of a recruiting cycle and it was,
00:19:40 all right, you got 22 high school spots to go fill, okay?
00:19:42 So you put your head down, you get to work, right?
00:19:44 We need a quarterback, we need two running backs,
00:19:46 you know, whatever it is.
00:19:48 And now it's, that number is always changing, right?
00:19:52 And you try to do a good job going through
00:19:55 and saying, all right, who do we think is going to leave?
00:19:59 Who's a flight risk?
00:20:02 Different things like that.
00:20:02 Try to stay ahead of it, right?
00:20:04 And try to predict for the most part.
00:20:05 But there's always surprises.
00:20:08 There's always people that stay that you don't think will.
00:20:10 There's always people that leave.
00:20:11 So, you know, we, between myself and Drew, right?
00:20:15 So Drew handles the college side,
00:20:16 I handle the high school side.
00:20:18 You know, our offices are right next to each other
00:20:20 and there's multiple times throughout the day
00:20:22 where we're hopping up, running over,
00:20:24 hey, what do you think here?
00:20:25 What do you think there?
00:20:26 You know, is this, you know,
00:20:28 should for this receiver spot, right?
00:20:29 Do we need a young guy?
00:20:30 Do we need a transfer guy?
00:20:32 You know, and then obviously coach Brown
00:20:34 has a big piece in that.
00:20:35 And, you know, for the most part is telling us
00:20:37 which way he kind of sees it going,
00:20:39 but, you know, and it can get to the point, right?
00:20:42 Where the portal market isn't as good.
00:20:45 Hey, do you guys have a high score
00:20:46 that you think can fill this?
00:20:47 You have a junior college guy you think can fill this.
00:20:50 So it really doesn't stop, right?
00:20:52 And it used to be a real clean sheet,
00:20:54 your scholarship deal, right?
00:20:56 You had 85 scholarships and you kind of knew,
00:20:59 all right, these guys are going to graduate.
00:21:00 So we're going to have about, you know,
00:21:02 15 spots open up and then you fill those.
00:21:04 So a little bit different now,
00:21:07 and it really doesn't stop up until the season begins.
00:21:09 So it's, yeah, it's 24/7, 365 at this point,
00:21:13 the roster management piece.
00:21:14 - A couple of weeks ago, the paradigm shifted again.
00:21:17 We were starting to think as coaching staff
00:21:20 started to pivot towards, all right,
00:21:22 if you're going to say a kid has a one-time free pass,
00:21:24 as an undergrad, and then another free pass,
00:21:27 but he has to graduate and be a grad transfer to get that,
00:21:31 then it would make great sense to get a kid
00:21:33 who after his freshman year,
00:21:34 who's, you know, discontent somewhere else,
00:21:37 get him to transfer in and now he's locked into you,
00:21:39 at least until he graduates.
00:21:41 That seemed to drive the value of the portal kit up some.
00:21:45 Well, now that's been equalized yet again,
00:21:48 because it's not a one-time free pass.
00:21:49 It very much appears as a steering
00:21:51 to officially become a two-time free pass
00:21:54 and a grad transfer.
00:21:56 So that might even shift things with a greater premium
00:21:59 back on the high school kid.
00:22:00 But let, before the conversation goes any further,
00:22:03 and I want Owen to jump in, Drew, give us the number.
00:22:05 This is what I always like to talk to you about
00:22:07 to give people some perspective,
00:22:09 that this massive number,
00:22:11 as you're starting to put the pyramid together,
00:22:13 what number do you start with
00:22:16 that you're looking at to evaluate
00:22:18 before you trim it down to maybe a couple dozen kids
00:22:21 that are part of the class?
00:22:22 - Yep, I had a feeling you were gonna ask that question.
00:22:24 So I went and pulled all of our junior evals,
00:22:26 or our 2024 evals, right?
00:22:28 So we did just over 2,700 evaluations in the '24 class.
00:22:33 All right, so you take that massive number,
00:22:39 and obviously there are a lot of people
00:22:40 that go into those evaluations.
00:22:42 We've got 10 recruiting interns, right?
00:22:45 Each one of them is assigned to a position coach, okay?
00:22:47 So they're really the gatekeeper, right?
00:22:51 They say yes or no, okay?
00:22:53 So they take a bigger number than the 2,700
00:22:56 that end up on our yes list, right?
00:23:00 And then, you know, there's parameters,
00:23:02 there's different things they have to follow, right?
00:23:04 Guys don't slip through the cracks,
00:23:05 but essentially, you know, if, say, an intern, right,
00:23:09 he works for Coach Koons, all right?
00:23:11 So he goes through and he watches all the guys
00:23:14 in Coach Koons' area, okay?
00:23:16 That's his responsibility,
00:23:17 is to make sure he knows everybody in that coach's area,
00:23:20 and he's got to go through and watch, right?
00:23:21 So he starts with the sophomore tape.
00:23:23 We don't ever watch freshman tape.
00:23:24 Freshman tape is, you know, it's not a good picture
00:23:27 of what the kid will be, right?
00:23:29 Sophomore tape is where the real projection comes in.
00:23:32 So those guys are trained up well,
00:23:33 and they go through, say yes or no.
00:23:35 They watch a ton of film, they cut up a ton of film.
00:23:38 You know, those guys, we couldn't do it without them.
00:23:40 So essentially, they say yes, right?
00:23:42 And then, you know, we've recently added
00:23:44 three recruiting assistants,
00:23:45 and they've kind of filtered down the process
00:23:47 a little bit more, right?
00:23:47 So they go through and watch all the yeses, okay?
00:23:50 From there, they're all assigned the first grade on them.
00:23:52 We've got an eight-point grading scale,
00:23:54 1.0 to 5.0, that they start to bucket them, right?
00:23:59 So we're going to bucket those guys
00:24:01 and kind of get them in a good spot.
00:24:03 So when myself and Ken Signoretti,
00:24:05 who is my number two, and he does a phenomenal job,
00:24:09 former intern of mine, we go through,
00:24:12 and then we start to stack the board, right?
00:24:14 So we'll put our grade on it, stack the board from there.
00:24:16 About anywhere, depending on the class, right,
00:24:20 and how good it is, and the guys within our six-hour radius,
00:24:23 we'll have about 700 to 750 guys on the initial board, right?
00:24:27 And that'll eventually get trimmed down.
00:24:30 But, so basically, you take about 3,000 evals,
00:24:33 trim it down to about 700 guys that make the board,
00:24:36 and then from there, you go
00:24:38 and you start getting guys on visits, right?
00:24:40 Like, who are the guys that we're going to go after?
00:24:42 We had about 400 guys in the 24 class on visits, okay?
00:24:47 That number gets filtered down to about 45
00:24:49 that we brought on an official visit
00:24:51 to ultimately sign 22, right?
00:24:53 So you take a big number, 3,000 or so,
00:24:57 and you get it down to 22, it's really hard.
00:24:59 And it takes a lot of time.
00:25:01 It's a three-year process, which, you know,
00:25:04 is the fun and unique thing about high school recruiting,
00:25:07 right, it lasts so long.
00:25:08 You put all this information in your head,
00:25:12 and you sign 22 guys, right?
00:25:14 And you hope that you're making the right decision.
00:25:16 Now, I think with the portal, though,
00:25:19 you usually get a chance to revisit those guys, right?
00:25:21 So that's why you have to do a really good job
00:25:23 in that three to four-year window
00:25:26 of capturing all the information and data points
00:25:28 you can on guys, because you're probably eventually
00:25:31 going to recruit them again, right?
00:25:32 So, and that's just kind of how it goes.
00:25:35 It's interesting, but that's kind of
00:25:37 the numbers game there, Jed.
00:25:41 - Trey, I wanted to ask you, you know,
00:25:43 you mentioned some of those conversations
00:25:44 that you guys go into each other's office,
00:25:46 bouncing ideas off of each other.
00:25:48 How do you balance, and I'm sure it's obviously
00:25:50 on a case-by-case basis, but say there's a guy
00:25:54 in the portal, wide receiver,
00:25:56 who's got one year of eligibility left,
00:25:58 and there's a wide receiver coming out of high school,
00:26:01 right, and you think, okay, this guy who's coming
00:26:03 out of high school feels like he could be a program guy.
00:26:05 He could be here for three to five years, really grow,
00:26:07 really have a long-term impact.
00:26:09 But this transfer guy who we can have for one year
00:26:11 would help us more right now.
00:26:13 How do you guys kind of, in this new age, right,
00:26:15 I'm sure that's more difficult than ever,
00:26:17 balancing the immediate versus the long-term future.
00:26:21 - Yeah, I think it's tough.
00:26:23 I think if you ask myself or Drew,
00:26:24 we would probably always say,
00:26:26 "Hey, let's take both and figure it out," right?
00:26:29 But that's not how it works.
00:26:31 So I think you have to be just, you know,
00:26:34 honest with yourself, or honest with, you know,
00:26:36 kind of where that room is, right?
00:26:38 So you mentioned receiver, okay.
00:26:40 Do we feel like we have enough guys
00:26:42 with game experience, right?
00:26:44 Like real snaps, live bullets,
00:26:45 that, you know, maybe we can bring another high schooler in
00:26:50 and let him kind of develop for a year.
00:26:51 But I think you have to have a really good feel
00:26:55 for your roster, your room, and kind of what you need, right?
00:26:58 So there's probably not a great way to, you know,
00:27:03 go about answering that, but at the end of the day,
00:27:06 you have to have a really good feel for your roster
00:27:08 and where you're going into the next season.
00:27:11 So, you know, it's, I always push for the high schooler.
00:27:16 Drew always pushes for the transfer,
00:27:17 and Coach Brown usually kind of makes the final decision.
00:27:22 - I love it, I love it.
00:27:27 Big O, you got anything for Trey
00:27:28 before we kind of get into some specifics?
00:27:30 - Man, how do you, when you do have these recruits
00:27:34 blowing through, and 400 obviously is quite a hefty load
00:27:39 there, like of talent.
00:27:41 So do you meet personally as well with these kids?
00:27:45 Or is it more, like what kind of is that visit
00:27:50 for them kids when they do, when you do kind of snag 'em up?
00:27:54 - Yeah, yeah, no doubt.
00:27:55 So I think that the way that we go about business, right,
00:28:00 there's a few different ways,
00:28:01 and there's a natural progression
00:28:02 that we kind of want to go about it, right?
00:28:04 So the biggest thing for us when we first make contact
00:28:07 with guys, we're trying to get 'em,
00:28:08 now listen, if there's a guy within our six hour radius
00:28:11 and really between Ohio, West Virginia, and PA,
00:28:15 we'll probably have 'em on campus before they camp,
00:28:18 but essentially before a kid will go into his junior year,
00:28:22 right, so at the completion of his sophomore year,
00:28:24 we're sending out camp invites like crazy,
00:28:26 'cause we want to get 'em here,
00:28:27 we want to see 'em live, okay?
00:28:29 The camp piece is a very important piece
00:28:31 of the whole deal for us, right?
00:28:33 We want our coaches to be able to work hands-on
00:28:36 with the guys that we're recruiting.
00:28:38 So if we can get 'em after their sophomore year
00:28:40 on campus for a camp, right, early ID 'em,
00:28:42 see 'em live, see 'em move around,
00:28:44 like that's a massive piece for us,
00:28:46 but then we'll essentially go through,
00:28:49 and okay, who are the guys we had at camp
00:28:51 that we really liked as young guys, okay?
00:28:53 And then who are the guys that didn't make it to camp,
00:28:55 but we think they're really good,
00:28:56 we try to get 'em on game day visits,
00:28:58 and that's really one of the first visits
00:28:59 that a prospect will do for us, okay?
00:29:02 So on those visits, all right,
00:29:04 it's play your game on Friday night,
00:29:06 get up early, drive to Morgantown,
00:29:07 come for a game, you know,
00:29:10 and it's a really good deal.
00:29:11 Our on-campus staff, headed by Taylor West,
00:29:14 she does a phenomenal job when we get people on campus.
00:29:17 She's, you know, extremely detail-oriented,
00:29:19 works her butt off for us,
00:29:21 like she does a phenomenal job,
00:29:23 and really the on-campus piece couldn't go without her,
00:29:26 but you know, on those game day visits,
00:29:28 the coaches are getting ready to coach,
00:29:29 so a lot of the initial contact is by myself
00:29:32 and the rest of our staff.
00:29:34 So we'll kind of do that initial deal,
00:29:36 and Coach Browns, you know, he frees up some time,
00:29:39 so we're running meetings back and forth, right?
00:29:41 So the biggest thing is they get here, they check in,
00:29:43 we height-weight 'em.
00:29:44 Every time a kid comes to campus, right,
00:29:46 so we'll either give 'em a photo shoot,
00:29:48 and the way they pay us back
00:29:49 is height-weight, arm, wing, hand, right?
00:29:53 So that's our payment, their payment,
00:29:54 they get some pictures.
00:29:56 But, you know, we'll do that, we'll get 'em a meal,
00:30:00 and the game day visits are awesome,
00:30:01 'cause obviously everybody on this call knows,
00:30:04 you know, like, Morgantown, on game days,
00:30:08 it's something special,
00:30:09 and there's not a lot of places like it.
00:30:10 We always want people to go to Pitt
00:30:12 and watch one of their games before they come to ours.
00:30:14 (laughing)
00:30:17 You know, just to compare, right, just to compare.
00:30:20 But at-- (laughing)
00:30:22 - I love it, love it.
00:30:24 But, you know, that's kind of like the first deal
00:30:27 that we do, is try to get 'em here for game days,
00:30:30 let 'em see the environment, the atmosphere of Morgantown.
00:30:32 Then from there, we'll go,
00:30:34 they'll finish out their high school season,
00:30:36 then we'll start junior days, right?
00:30:37 We've already had two junior days this month.
00:30:41 We've had, ooh, about 80 guys on campus already,
00:30:45 a bunch of really, really talented players,
00:30:46 and those junior days, like,
00:30:48 we're trying to get them every piece of information
00:30:50 we can get them, try to fit it in about six hours, right?
00:30:53 We'll take 'em to a basketball game,
00:30:54 and that helps for the guys that weren't able to come here
00:30:56 for game day visits in the fall,
00:30:58 'cause our basketball atmosphere
00:31:00 is just as good as the football.
00:31:03 Academic strength and conditioning,
00:31:04 let 'em talk to Coach Joseph,
00:31:06 let 'em talk to Zach and his academic crew,
00:31:08 Haley Bishop in nutrition,
00:31:10 like, try to give 'em a full picture, right?
00:31:12 They'll do a detailed position meeting, campus tour.
00:31:16 So basically, we want guys to leave junior days
00:31:18 with close to no questions, right?
00:31:20 We don't want 'em to leave campus without,
00:31:22 and then the biggest thing
00:31:24 Coach Brown talks about all the time,
00:31:25 all right, when you drive home, when you're leaving,
00:31:27 like, really think about it,
00:31:29 is this a place that I want to come back, right?
00:31:30 'Cause we want the guys that want us,
00:31:33 and that's the biggest piece for us, right?
00:31:35 If Morgantown's not for you, that's fine,
00:31:37 it's not for everybody,
00:31:37 but we want the people that want us,
00:31:40 that feel good about us,
00:31:41 that this is the place for them.
00:31:43 So then we try to get 'em back for a spring visit, right?
00:31:46 And the way that we do spring visits,
00:31:49 we try to time it up with a spring practice,
00:31:52 and that's a really beneficial day,
00:31:55 'cause we start to get that list real small,
00:31:58 and these are the guys
00:31:59 that we're going to potentially have on official visits.
00:32:00 So basically, they show up
00:32:02 as if they're about to go through a spring practice, right?
00:32:04 So you show up, you with the guys in the position room,
00:32:08 you go through a position meeting,
00:32:09 we want you to be as hands-on with the players and coaches,
00:32:12 almost like your shadow for the day, right?
00:32:15 And really see how Coach Marshall, how he coaches,
00:32:18 how Coach Jackson coaches,
00:32:20 see how Coach Leslie goes through a unit meeting.
00:32:23 And then really watch practice, right?
00:32:26 Because Coach Brown always says,
00:32:28 recruiting is recruiting,
00:32:30 but at the end of the day,
00:32:31 when those coaches are out on the grass,
00:32:33 they're going to forget the guys there,
00:32:35 'cause they're trying to get their guys better, right?
00:32:36 So that'll give the parents and the recruiter
00:32:39 a really good idea of, all right,
00:32:41 how does Coach Marshall coach, right?
00:32:44 Like, is this a guy that I can see myself playing for?
00:32:46 So we want guys to get on campus as many times,
00:32:50 and then after that, right,
00:32:51 we'll schedule official visits.
00:32:52 And usually we try to keep that number really small.
00:32:55 Those are the guys that we think,
00:32:56 all right, if we get them on campus,
00:32:57 they're probably going to say yes, right?
00:32:59 So we try to come out of June
00:33:00 with most of our class committed,
00:33:02 and then we'll finish up the rest with senior evals.
00:33:04 But that's kind of how it goes.
00:33:06 But we want to get guys on campus
00:33:07 as many times as possible, right?
00:33:10 Try to figure out who they are, what makes them tick,
00:33:11 who's in their circle.
00:33:14 But the only way you can figure that out
00:33:16 is by going to the school and getting them on campus
00:33:18 so that we place a premium on getting guys here.
00:33:21 - Love it, man. - I want to ask you,
00:33:25 two quick numbers, and I have a disconnected question,
00:33:29 but I'm curious about two numbers.
00:33:30 And you talked about junior day.
00:33:32 What percent, first of all, batting average,
00:33:36 when you get a kid on campus,
00:33:40 how often do you get that kid back a second time
00:33:45 when you want him back?
00:33:46 That's my first question.
00:33:48 And then the second question,
00:33:49 on average, if you had to guess,
00:33:52 out of the 20 plus kids we signed in this class,
00:33:55 on average, now there's going to be some outliers,
00:33:57 Kyle Altuner, for instance,
00:33:59 was on campus, what, eight plus times?
00:34:01 On average, how many times
00:34:03 were each of those kids on campus?
00:34:05 So question one, what's your batting average
00:34:07 in getting a kid to come back a second time
00:34:09 when you want him to, when you're that interested?
00:34:12 And on average, how many times are they on campus
00:34:15 these kids that signed?
00:34:17 - Yeah, I would say our batting average is pretty high.
00:34:19 I think this place does a really good job
00:34:22 selling itself, right?
00:34:23 I think that we've got phenomenal facilities.
00:34:26 Morgantown, I think the amount of times I hear somebody
00:34:30 from either outside of our six hour radius
00:34:32 or somebody who's never been to Morgantown,
00:34:34 when they come here, you take a kid from Maryland
00:34:37 and he drives up through the mountains
00:34:38 and they see that,
00:34:40 I think it's kind of an eye-opening experience, right?
00:34:43 Wow, Morgantown wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
00:34:45 And that's why we have to get guys here, right?
00:34:47 Because there is this idea of what,
00:34:50 when people say West Virginia, what they think that means
00:34:52 and they get here and they realize in all actuality,
00:34:54 that's nowhere close to it, right?
00:34:56 It's a beautiful state.
00:34:58 And when you get on campus,
00:35:00 like we've got state-of-the-art facilities,
00:35:02 we've got really everything you need in a college town,
00:35:06 in a college, this is where,
00:35:08 this is like when you think of college,
00:35:10 you think of places like Morgantown, right?
00:35:11 Like a college atmosphere where there's a town,
00:35:14 but then there's the students
00:35:15 and that's pretty much it, right?
00:35:17 And I think that that,
00:35:18 I've never worked at a place that's any different than that.
00:35:20 I couldn't imagine being in like a big city and all that.
00:35:23 So I think this is the,
00:35:24 so at the end of the day, when we get kids here
00:35:27 and we invite them back for a spring ball,
00:35:29 like, yeah, our hit rate's pretty good
00:35:31 because on top of that,
00:35:32 we've got really good people in the building too.
00:35:35 We're genuine, we're not like used cars men,
00:35:38 or used car salesmen when it comes to recruiting.
00:35:40 We just, we don't, that's not what we believe in, right?
00:35:42 We're extremely transparent.
00:35:44 It's not for everybody,
00:35:45 but at the end of the day, we want the right guys.
00:35:47 And that's kind of the only way to do it.
00:35:48 So, we do a really good job of the guys
00:35:51 we want to get back here, we get them back here.
00:35:53 And at the end of the day,
00:35:55 like, it's going to be a really hard sell
00:35:57 to get in a kid on an official visit
00:35:59 that we don't have here multiple times, right?
00:36:01 'Cause those official visits, we get 70 of them a year.
00:36:05 And if we don't hit, then we're not filling our 85, right?
00:36:07 And that has to be split between high schoolers
00:36:09 and transfers.
00:36:10 So we have to do a really good job
00:36:12 of knowing who we're bringing on campus
00:36:14 for those official visits.
00:36:15 'Cause if we miss on that,
00:36:16 we could screw it up pretty bad.
00:36:18 So, I would say, Jed, I would say,
00:36:23 in terms of how many times do we get guys,
00:36:25 like, I would say about three, three to four, right?
00:36:28 That's a comfortable number.
00:36:29 And we hope one of those is a live eval, right?
00:36:31 At camp, and then they'll probably come
00:36:33 to one to two games, you know,
00:36:36 as one is a junior, one is a senior.
00:36:38 Some guys, obviously more, Kyle Altuner's a great example
00:36:41 of a guy who, you know, we knew everything about him.
00:36:43 By the time, you know, his senior year rolled around,
00:36:46 his parents could give the tour, they could do modjo.
00:36:48 So that's ideal, right?
00:36:50 Because that eliminates risk,
00:36:53 knowing somebody like that, you know,
00:36:54 that eliminates risk.
00:36:55 You know what makes them tick.
00:36:56 You know who their family is.
00:36:58 And it also gives our coaches the power
00:36:59 to coach those guys, you know,
00:37:01 the way that they need to be coached
00:37:03 because the family believes in them, they believe in us.
00:37:06 So yeah, it's extremely important,
00:37:09 but I would say about three to four times, Jed.
00:37:11 - Sticking with Kyle Altuner,
00:37:14 it takes a very special, unique, and different kid
00:37:19 to step on campus as a true freshman
00:37:23 and do what Zach Frazier was able to do in 2020,
00:37:27 truly compete and vie for time to crack a lineup
00:37:32 at a Power Five school.
00:37:34 - Yeah.
00:37:34 - You think Kyle Altuner has a shot?
00:37:37 I mean, there's a lot of indications
00:37:40 when you evaluate the kid.
00:37:42 - Yeah.
00:37:43 - I see more reasons to think he might
00:37:44 than reasons to think he won't.
00:37:46 But as somebody who's on the inner circle,
00:37:48 he's going to be a player at some point.
00:37:50 - There's no question.
00:37:51 - No refuting that.
00:37:51 The question is, what kind of timeline
00:37:53 might we be looking at?
00:37:55 That's a big ask.
00:37:56 - Yeah.
00:37:57 And I think that, you know, whenever you talk about,
00:38:01 and I think if you ask probably any offensive line coach
00:38:04 or anybody who's been around football,
00:38:05 you never want a true freshman to play
00:38:06 on the offensive line, right?
00:38:08 It moves a lot quicker than what you think.
00:38:10 And, you know, those guys are doing a lot more
00:38:13 than what it looks like on TV.
00:38:14 You know, it's a tough ask, especially, you know,
00:38:18 we think Kyle's going to be a center.
00:38:20 We think he is going to be the replacement for Frazier,
00:38:22 right?
00:38:23 But, you know, to sit here and say that a freshman,
00:38:27 a true freshman could come in and play center,
00:38:29 man, it's a tough spot to play as a freshman.
00:38:32 So I don't think it's fair to sit here and say like,
00:38:35 you know what, do I think that he's capable?
00:38:38 Yeah, I do.
00:38:39 But here's the thing, he's not an early enrollee, right?
00:38:42 So that's, that, that, that,
00:38:43 not going through spring, missing.
00:38:45 So, you know, and he's going to take care
00:38:47 of everything he needs to, right?
00:38:48 Like he's going to train his ass off when he's,
00:38:51 when he's away from us.
00:38:52 But when he gets here in June or in the end of May,
00:38:55 I think like, yeah, he'll be fine physically.
00:38:57 Now there's obviously going to be a curve,
00:38:58 like there's going to be a learning curve there,
00:39:00 but to say you can do it, man, it would be awesome to see,
00:39:04 and I wouldn't put it past him.
00:39:05 He's a smart kid.
00:39:06 He's from an awesome program and good council,
00:39:09 great work ethic, smart.
00:39:11 He's the right type of guy.
00:39:15 If anybody could do it, he can.
00:39:17 To say he can't, I'm not going to sit here and say that,
00:39:18 Jed, I'm not, but I wouldn't put it past him.
00:39:22 It is, it's hard, especially center.
00:39:23 - You know, even when you talk to Andy Stefanelli,
00:39:25 he's his head coach, as you touched on,
00:39:27 great program and good council.
00:39:29 I mean, they've coached kids like Sam Mustapha
00:39:31 plays for the Ravens.
00:39:32 He talks about the leadership skills that Kyle has.
00:39:35 It's just, it makes it even more difficult.
00:39:38 Obviously, you just hit on a key.
00:39:40 He's not an early enrollee.
00:39:41 So to ask him to show up in the summer
00:39:44 and take those types of leaps, hit on the,
00:39:48 let's talk big picture early enrollees.
00:39:50 Any of them, they haven't even really been
00:39:52 with Coach Mike Joseph yet.
00:39:54 So it's difficult to see what you're dealing with
00:39:56 just because they're up close and personal,
00:39:58 other than the fact that,
00:39:59 how do they look getting off the bus?
00:40:00 I mean, we have long arms, high bus,
00:40:02 just like we thought coming.
00:40:04 I mean, they've even grown some size,
00:40:05 some of these kids, since we signed,
00:40:07 since their senior year in high school,
00:40:10 two, three months ago,
00:40:10 they've even grown some since then.
00:40:12 So how are some of these on-campus kids looking?
00:40:14 And I know that we were always going to put a premium
00:40:17 on edge rushing talent.
00:40:20 And there's a couple of those kids
00:40:22 out of the three edge rushers that are already on campus.
00:40:25 How are some of these kids looking physically,
00:40:27 up close and personal?
00:40:29 - Honestly, so it's funny you say that
00:40:30 'cause I was in a training table this morning at breakfast
00:40:33 and I ran into Zay Jennings
00:40:35 and he's already put on four pounds
00:40:37 and he's only been here for what, two weeks now.
00:40:40 So he's already put on four pounds,
00:40:42 starting to get acclimated.
00:40:43 So Coach Joseph and his staff,
00:40:47 they're going to do a phenomenal job with them.
00:40:49 And I think it's cool to see guys get excited
00:40:53 about having to go through a program like that, right?
00:40:56 But they're seeing instant gains,
00:40:58 which is, it's crazy to think about
00:41:00 'cause you can go through your entire high school career
00:41:02 lifting weights a certain way, right?
00:41:04 Maybe you don't see a ton,
00:41:05 but Coach Joseph in a short, in a semester,
00:41:08 he's going to transform their bodies,
00:41:10 which is cool to say.
00:41:11 He's going to put weight on in the right places
00:41:13 for guys that need to gain.
00:41:14 And they look good.
00:41:18 I think it's a really good group.
00:41:20 And I think that's the thing that we've really focused on
00:41:23 is bringing in the right type of guys
00:41:24 that are going to come in here
00:41:25 and work their butts off.
00:41:27 Obi, he's obviously one of the Ed rushers
00:41:30 we're talking about.
00:41:31 He's a great looking kid.
00:41:35 And I think that a college weight program
00:41:38 is going to be awesome for him.
00:41:40 Obi is 6'4", 235, right?
00:41:42 So he starts to add 10, 15 pounds.
00:41:47 And the way that that looks,
00:41:48 I think it's going to be pretty special.
00:41:49 And I think he's got a bright future.
00:41:51 But Big Nate, right?
00:41:53 We haven't seen him in a while.
00:41:54 He's down there in Florida
00:41:56 and it's kind of tough to get up here,
00:41:57 but he is a monster, man.
00:42:01 I'm so excited about them.
00:42:03 He has got a chance to be a really, really,
00:42:06 really good interior defensive lineman.
00:42:09 - He's an interior D lineman, guys.
00:42:12 Owen, you're going to, I'm telling you what,
00:42:13 you'll frown at the mouth over this kid.
00:42:15 But you heard Trey talk about Zay Jennings, Owen.
00:42:18 This will give you some sense of what we're pulling off here.
00:42:21 Zay Jennings is a kid,
00:42:22 the program that he played at in Ohio,
00:42:24 when you talk to Chad Murphy,
00:42:25 he runs a great program there.
00:42:26 I mean, they have Jermaine Matthews,
00:42:28 a defensive back at Ohio State.
00:42:29 They have Cameron Calhoun, a defensive back at Michigan.
00:42:32 And when you talk to Chad Murphy,
00:42:33 he talks about defensive back Zay Jennings
00:42:35 coming to West Virginia, right there with those guys.
00:42:38 So that's just it.
00:42:40 When you look at Jason Cross, Chris Henry,
00:42:43 I mean, if I break it down by position,
00:42:46 just looking at back end defenders,
00:42:48 I mean, I'm so excited for so many reasons
00:42:50 about some of these kids in this group,
00:42:52 but we could, I'm sure Trey, you and I could probably
00:42:55 both go on all the live long day about some of these kids,
00:42:58 'cause there's a lot to like.
00:43:01 - So, let me, Jed, I know you do want to nerd out
00:43:04 with some of these guys and their high school coaches
00:43:07 and all the stuff that you and Trey have spent months,
00:43:09 if not years here, poring over.
00:43:12 I'm thinking back to though, because again,
00:43:14 every class, right, Trey?
00:43:16 You've got the names at the top of the list
00:43:17 that the fan base is familiar with,
00:43:19 and they want to look for them in the spring game
00:43:21 with their early enrollees, and they expect,
00:43:24 like Rodney Gallagher's a good example, right?
00:43:26 Everybody knew who Rodney Gallagher was last year,
00:43:27 that we'd see him in some capacity, excited about him.
00:43:30 I think Josiah Trotter was one of those guys too,
00:43:32 until the unfortunate injury.
00:43:34 But when we're talking this last year in the class,
00:43:37 you said, and Jed as well too,
00:43:39 hey, there's this guy, Ben Cutter,
00:43:42 coming to us from North Carolina,
00:43:43 who I'm just telling you, he's not one that has
00:43:47 a ton of attention and eyeballs
00:43:49 and the fan base gravitating towards him.
00:43:51 This guy's a football player, and then, you know,
00:43:54 lo and behold, you have some injuries down in Fort Worth
00:43:56 when you're playing TCU, and all of a sudden,
00:43:58 Ben gets thrust in there, and you see him have
00:44:01 his growing pains, if you will,
00:44:03 but man, really starts to look the role
00:44:06 and fit the part at the end of his freshman season.
00:44:08 And I don't want to say he came out of nowhere, right?
00:44:11 But again, not one of those guys that I think
00:44:13 the fan base necessarily expected to see on the field
00:44:15 and see having an impact right away.
00:44:18 Do you have one of those, you know,
00:44:20 this guy might not have as much buzz from a national
00:44:22 or from a fan base perspective, but I tell you what,
00:44:25 keep an eye on this guy, 'cause he's gonna
00:44:26 surprise some people early?
00:44:28 - Yeah, I would say, and, you know,
00:44:31 Ben was somebody that, like I said, we believed in him,
00:44:35 and at the end of the day, there's not a lot of guys
00:44:37 on this list, if any, that weren't really, really good
00:44:41 high school football players, and I think we've started
00:44:43 to put more of a premium, right?
00:44:45 So there's a few ways you can look at high school recruiting.
00:44:47 You can go out and try to sign a top, you know,
00:44:50 two, four, seven rivals, all that, right?
00:44:52 You can do that, and maybe that's the way
00:44:54 that some people prefer to do it.
00:44:56 For us, that's just not the way that we're gonna do it here
00:44:58 because, you know, we're gonna go try to find the best
00:45:01 20, 22 for us and guys that fit it.
00:45:05 And I think Ben was one of those guys, right?
00:45:06 Like he was a really, really good high school football
00:45:09 player, extremely productive, worked hard,
00:45:11 ran around, tackled, extremely physical,
00:45:13 and you saw that kind of pay off year one, right?
00:45:17 I wasn't surprised that Ben was able to step in
00:45:20 and fill those roles.
00:45:21 Like, it wasn't surprising to us at all
00:45:23 because we knew who he was, we knew what he was about,
00:45:26 and it's a credit to him, right, and Coach Coons
00:45:28 for getting ready to be able to go play, right?
00:45:32 'Cause we could have been in trouble,
00:45:33 especially after that TCU game, right?
00:45:35 Like, you know, we're talking about losing, you know,
00:45:38 and I hate it for Trey Latham, right?
00:45:39 He has come on and I think he's got a really special future,
00:45:45 and that linebacker room is phenomenal right now.
00:45:48 But in terms of guys that can play early, you know,
00:45:53 I'm probably a little bit biased because, you know,
00:45:57 he's a Cincinnati guy, I'm a Cincinnati guy,
00:45:59 but I do think that there is something to Zay Jennings.
00:46:02 I think that he's got a really high ceiling, right?
00:46:06 You're talking about a kid is a junior,
00:46:09 was a triple option quarterback at Coleraine High School,
00:46:11 right, he transferred to Winton Woods for his last year,
00:46:14 but, you know, I just, so I still get the,
00:46:18 I subscribe to the Cincinnati Inquirer, right,
00:46:20 'cause I like to go in there and look at,
00:46:22 and I just kept seeing this kid's name pop up, right?
00:46:24 Zay Jennings, Zay Jennings, Zay Jennings, Zay Jennings,
00:46:26 okay, triple option quarterback.
00:46:27 So I'm like, man, this kid might be able
00:46:31 to do something else, right?
00:46:32 'Cause, you know, could he have been
00:46:34 an offensive skill player?
00:46:35 Maybe, but I was like, man,
00:46:36 he might be able to be a safety at DB, right?
00:46:38 And then we sent Coach Leslie out to see him,
00:46:41 and I think Coach Brown was with him that day too,
00:46:43 when he's doing box jumps, and he's, you know,
00:46:46 Coach Brown was like, holy crap,
00:46:48 like he didn't think he was gonna be able
00:46:49 to get up on there, and he did,
00:46:51 and he transfers to Winton Woods,
00:46:52 and he plays DB, and that's his first time really playing.
00:46:55 He played a little bit at Coleraine,
00:46:56 but there's some natural ability,
00:46:59 like he's not afraid to come downhill,
00:47:01 and, you know, he's a triple option quarterback, right,
00:47:03 you gotta be pretty damn tough to do that,
00:47:04 but, you know, he's playing downhill,
00:47:07 he's making plays on the football.
00:47:09 Man, I'm really excited about him,
00:47:11 I think he's about the right stuff, great family,
00:47:15 but I think he's one of those guys,
00:47:17 he's one of those guys that can definitely do it.
00:47:19 I will probably be wrong not to mention
00:47:22 some of the running backs, right,
00:47:23 after Jaheim and what Coach Scott's been able to do
00:47:27 with some of those young guys,
00:47:29 but I think that obviously all those guys
00:47:32 that are early enrollees, they have a great chance,
00:47:36 but Zay's one I would just keep my eye out for,
00:47:38 as long as he's able to pick it all up.
00:47:41 - Common link, and Trey, you just hit on something there,
00:47:43 you talked about Ben Cutter,
00:47:45 Wes, when you asked about Ben Cutter,
00:47:47 one of the first things that Trey said was production,
00:47:50 I mean, this was a kid that in high school
00:47:52 had 500 plus tackles, now high school stats
00:47:55 can be deceiving from a tackle standpoint sometimes,
00:47:57 but anybody that watched Ben Cutter's tape,
00:47:59 you quickly recognized those stats weren't deceiving,
00:48:01 he was a ball hawk, and you talk about
00:48:04 these two freshman running backs in this group,
00:48:08 Trayvon Dunbar, Dior Hubbard, production,
00:48:11 oh, and these two kids combined
00:48:13 to run for almost 10,000 career yards,
00:48:15 and we talk about how raw CJ was,
00:48:18 as a guy who was still even going into his second year,
00:48:21 really trying to master the nuances
00:48:23 of playing the running back position,
00:48:25 well, that's not gonna be the case with these two,
00:48:27 these two have played the running back position extensively
00:48:31 at a very high level, and have the stats,
00:48:34 and the production, and the wins to prove it.
00:48:37 Yeah.
00:48:38 - Seems like we've been in the hotbed right now
00:48:43 with running backs here as of late,
00:48:46 Coach Scott and you all know a thing or two
00:48:50 about running the ground game.
00:48:53 - Yeah, yeah, no doubt, I think Coach Scott
00:48:56 does a really, really good job evaluating,
00:49:00 and probably is one of our better projectors, right?
00:49:05 Like some coaches are really good at watching guys
00:49:08 when they're younger and saying,
00:49:09 hey, I think this kid's got a chance,
00:49:11 but what makes Coach Scott really good
00:49:14 is his ability to go out and close on playmakers, right?
00:49:17 And that's what these two guys are,
00:49:19 they have plenty of options.
00:49:21 Production, Jed, I think is something
00:49:25 that you can look at at some positions, right?
00:49:27 Running back would definitely be one of them,
00:49:29 because once the quarterback hands you the ball,
00:49:33 some offensive lines in high school are rough,
00:49:35 but at the end of the day,
00:49:37 if you can go rush for as many yards
00:49:39 as those two guys did in their high school careers,
00:49:41 yeah, that's probably a pretty good indicator of ability.
00:49:44 Now, at some positions like receiver
00:49:47 and different things like that,
00:49:48 there's a lot of different mitigating circumstances
00:49:53 that can affect your stats, right?
00:49:55 Can the offensive line protect,
00:49:56 can the quarterback get you the ball,
00:49:57 do you catch the ball?
00:49:58 So there's different things at different positions,
00:50:01 but production at linebacker and running back
00:50:03 is definitely, you got to have it, right?
00:50:06 - That's why you have Rodney Gallagher
00:50:08 playing quarterback in high school.
00:50:10 It's like you want to feed him the football so consistently
00:50:13 and nobody else on the team could get it to him
00:50:15 where you wanted him on the perimeter,
00:50:17 so you just said, "Hey, get back here and take the snaps."
00:50:19 And let's talk about the receivers,
00:50:21 because there's a couple of young guys in this group,
00:50:23 of course, one of the Steeles,
00:50:25 one of the 11th Hour Blue Jays.
00:50:25 - Yeah, I was going to say, maybe, Jed,
00:50:26 maybe we buried the lead here
00:50:29 by not talking about Day Day yet.
00:50:32 - Hey, Day Day, plus you got a kid
00:50:34 out of a really solid program in Pennsylvania,
00:50:37 in Philadelphia, that's played some high-level football.
00:50:41 You brought in a handful of receivers
00:50:43 that might be able, even though it's a young mix already,
00:50:47 don't look now, but we're going to have some battle-tested
00:50:49 sophomores kind of as the tip of the spear in that group.
00:50:52 But talk about the possibility of some of these guys,
00:50:55 and maybe tell the Day Day story,
00:50:56 for those who aren't familiar with it,
00:50:58 the longstanding relationship we had,
00:51:00 to help when that thing turned, we were there to catch it.
00:51:03 - Yeah, for sure.
00:51:04 And I think that, you know,
00:51:05 Day Day is an extremely talented football player
00:51:10 on both sides of the football.
00:51:12 I think if you turn to Snowmon,
00:51:14 he is a really, really good football player.
00:51:17 And I think, you know,
00:51:18 Coach Chidon would probably love to get him in his room,
00:51:22 and, well, I was going to get him,
00:51:23 but I think there'd be plenty of people.
00:51:26 I know our special teams guys
00:51:27 are excited to get their hands on him in the return game.
00:51:30 But yeah, no, with Day Day, you know, we had him,
00:51:33 we recruited him really hard.
00:51:35 Coach Scott was one of his first offers.
00:51:38 He's in Coach Scott's area down there,
00:51:39 and he, you know, saw him early,
00:51:43 and thought that he was a guy that was worthy of an offer,
00:51:45 and it turns out that was absolutely right.
00:51:47 We recruited him really, really hard,
00:51:49 got him on an official visit.
00:51:51 He decided, you know, at the end of the day,
00:51:53 Central Florida was a better choice for him at that time.
00:51:55 And I think, you know, hats off to Blau and Chad
00:51:59 for not giving up on it, right?
00:52:01 They just kept working it.
00:52:02 You know, we had him on the phone with Coach Brown
00:52:04 consistently throughout the season,
00:52:05 and you kind of just got the feeling that, all right,
00:52:07 you know, this thing might turn.
00:52:10 And we just kept, you know, hey, showing him, like,
00:52:13 hey, I think you'd be really special in this offense.
00:52:15 And I think, you know, towards the end, you know,
00:52:18 he had a great relationship with Blau, Chad, Coach Brown,
00:52:21 a bunch of different people in the building,
00:52:22 and he believes in us, right?
00:52:23 So, you know, Central Florida would have probably
00:52:26 been an easy choice for him, but he decided that,
00:52:28 you know, maybe it's better for him to go, you know,
00:52:31 out of state and kind of test the waters.
00:52:34 And we're really happy to do it,
00:52:35 'cause I think he's going to be a phenomenal player for us.
00:52:39 You know, Brandon Raymond's another receiver
00:52:41 you mentioned there, you know,
00:52:44 you said from a pretty solid program,
00:52:46 I'd say that's pretty much an understatement there, Jed.
00:52:49 From, I mean, an absolute powerhouse.
00:52:52 We love guys from St. Joe's Prep.
00:52:55 They're winners, they know how to work.
00:52:58 We're excited about Brandon.
00:52:59 I think he's got a high ceiling, really likable,
00:53:03 really likable kid, really likable family,
00:53:06 and, you know, a really good receiver from a program
00:53:10 where it's, you know, there's, man,
00:53:12 and a contact period, which is what we're in right now.
00:53:16 I mean, there's a line out the door at St. Joe's Prep
00:53:18 trying to get in there, and another,
00:53:20 Chad Scott and Bilal Marshall job here.
00:53:23 You know, they did a phenomenal job securing Brandon,
00:53:25 and we're excited about him.
00:53:27 - It matters to have, and Owen,
00:53:31 nobody knows this better than you as a guy who coaches
00:53:33 at an in-state school, but it also matters and helps
00:53:37 to harvest what you can from an in-state talent standpoint
00:53:41 to really fortify things.
00:53:44 I mean, people who understand what it's like to grow up
00:53:46 cheering for the Mountaineers,
00:53:47 what the program means to the state in general,
00:53:50 and when you look at three kids in this class,
00:53:53 we talk about production.
00:53:54 What word better fits Dom Collins than production?
00:53:57 You talk about Curtis Jones.
00:53:59 I see just such incredible versatility,
00:54:02 an incredibly productive running back.
00:54:04 He projects to be a very productive
00:54:06 and athletic linebacker,
00:54:08 and then when I look at Keyon Washington,
00:54:09 that's a guy I played against as high school coach
00:54:11 who played for Jeff Castillo when he was a D coordinator
00:54:14 at Shepherd, Craig Hunter was a great defensive back,
00:54:16 but when I look at Keyon Washington,
00:54:18 excuse me, Keyon Washington, I'm speaking out of turn here.
00:54:21 We have a track guy from West Virginia
00:54:25 and Keyshawn Robinson chasing some of James Jett's
00:54:28 school records and state records.
00:54:30 So just unmitigated speed,
00:54:33 but also, oh, and they're in-state kids.
00:54:35 So maybe the two of you compare notes on that
00:54:38 and what that means.
00:54:39 You're a guy who fell in love with West Virginia football
00:54:41 by playing here and decided to stay here
00:54:44 and become one of us.
00:54:45 And meanwhile, Trey, you're a guy who understands
00:54:48 the value of that being part of the collective.
00:54:50 So maybe you guys talk about that.
00:54:52 - Yeah, I think that,
00:54:54 and I hope that people really see the effort
00:55:00 that we're making in-state, right?
00:55:02 I think it's a state that doesn't get covered as much
00:55:05 in terms of the recruiting services
00:55:08 and the different recruiting outlets.
00:55:10 So we make it,
00:55:15 on my desktop, I've got a list of in-state guys, right?
00:55:18 That we're tracking, ranking,
00:55:20 and we're trying to know about all the guys
00:55:21 from the 24 class down to the 27,
00:55:24 some of the young guys coming up,
00:55:26 'cause we want players that know
00:55:29 what West Virginia football is about,
00:55:31 know what it means to the state, right?
00:55:35 And I think when you look at the guys
00:55:36 that we've recruited and signed from the state,
00:55:40 I hope that everybody kind of understands
00:55:44 we are making an effort to keep the guys
00:55:46 that are good football players home.
00:55:48 And if we don't get them as a scholarship player,
00:55:50 we typically will get them as a walk-on.
00:55:52 And most of those guys do end up on scholarship,
00:55:55 if you look at our track record since we've been here.
00:55:58 So Keyshawn Robinson and Dom Collins,
00:56:01 those guys have speed, right?
00:56:03 And there's numbers behind it.
00:56:05 Keyshawn, obviously an extremely talented
00:56:08 hundred meter guy, fast, really, really fast.
00:56:12 And Dom Collins is a guy who came to camp
00:56:15 and ran a four, two, nine, four, three,
00:56:17 four, three, five, four, three, one, right?
00:56:21 Did it four times.
00:56:22 And after the first time we ran it,
00:56:24 we're like, "Can you do it again?"
00:56:25 And he did it again and kept getting faster.
00:56:27 And to this day, I don't know if we've had a guy on campus
00:56:30 that's run a faster 40 than what Dom has.
00:56:32 So, and then you kind of,
00:56:34 he goes out there, has a really good senior year.
00:56:37 And those are two guys really excited about.
00:56:41 Curtis Jones, I think is a guy
00:56:42 that's got a ton of potential.
00:56:44 Obviously he played both ways down at Campbell Midland.
00:56:47 His dad played at Marshall.
00:56:49 Like I'm excited about them.
00:56:51 And I think once Coach Coons gets his hands on him
00:56:53 and gets to work, like I think you've got a guy
00:56:56 who's really, really special.
00:56:57 He's got like 34 and a half inch arms.
00:56:59 But yeah, the guys in the state are a priority.
00:57:02 We start there and we work our way out, right?
00:57:05 So we want to get those guys here.
00:57:07 - No, it's great to hear.
00:57:09 Just the overall conversation has been great
00:57:12 to kind of hear about, you know,
00:57:14 your all's formula of really keeping the traditions, right?
00:57:18 Keeping those traditions to get those people.
00:57:20 I'm sure it's tough with the families,
00:57:23 just trying to get everyone to buy in
00:57:24 in such a short kind of, you know,
00:57:27 small little dates here and there.
00:57:29 I know that is such a dance if you'd say,
00:57:33 but let's get back.
00:57:36 You just talked about kind of the walk-on program
00:57:38 just a little bit.
00:57:39 What are your kind of thoughts there too
00:57:41 about how many kids you want to bring in?
00:57:43 Are they just like, you know,
00:57:45 random people that kind of showed up?
00:57:48 Like me, I was a rando.
00:57:50 I just kind of dropped my film off.
00:57:51 I was like, hey man.
00:57:52 - Box of VHS tapes, baby.
00:57:55 - What's up, dog?
00:57:56 - 15 or 20.
00:57:57 - I'm just seeing this huddle and stuff.
00:57:59 - Yeah.
00:58:00 You know, I think that we try to be extremely, you know,
00:58:05 thorough in our evaluation of the walk-on program.
00:58:09 I wouldn't say there's a ton of random guys
00:58:11 that end up here.
00:58:13 I think, you know, we try to go to the programs in state
00:58:16 that have done a really good job
00:58:18 and have produced really, really good players.
00:58:21 But also, you know, there's not a, man.
00:58:24 So let me get back to your first question.
00:58:26 We get about 120 that we can put in the locker room, right?
00:58:29 That's kind of the number, 120, 110,
00:58:31 somewhere in between there.
00:58:32 So each year that number kind of changes and fluctuates.
00:58:36 It all depends on how many walk-ons we have
00:58:38 and how we leave the program, decide it's not for them.
00:58:40 And then, and Tyler Allen, he's really honest.
00:58:45 He's the guy who kind of makes the whole thing go
00:58:47 in terms of walk-ons.
00:58:48 It's kind of his project, right?
00:58:50 So essentially what we do
00:58:52 when we go through our evaluation processes
00:58:54 is we identify guys that we think will be
00:58:57 potential walk-ons, right?
00:58:58 That might mean that, you know,
00:59:00 maybe their height, weight, and speed aren't there,
00:59:01 but the production is.
00:59:02 Or they're just really good football players that,
00:59:05 you know, they don't necessarily fit
00:59:07 the conventional mold.
00:59:08 They need a few more years to develop.
00:59:10 And I think we've done a phenomenal job with that.
00:59:14 And like I said, Tyler Allen does a really good job.
00:59:16 We try to, all the guys that come to our prospect camp,
00:59:19 if we don't think they can be scholarship guys,
00:59:20 we put them on a list, all right,
00:59:21 this is a potential walk-on.
00:59:23 And then we kind of target them.
00:59:24 Like we recruit them really hard here at the end,
00:59:26 and they've got, you know, D2 options.
00:59:28 They've got FCS options.
00:59:30 They've got military academies.
00:59:31 And we try to go get those guys
00:59:33 and keep them in state and keep them here.
00:59:36 So I think, you know, we make a massive effort for it.
00:59:40 We spent the first couple of days,
00:59:41 we're out on the road,
00:59:42 going to see those guys,
00:59:43 'cause they're important, right?
00:59:44 They make up, especially in a transfer portal era,
00:59:47 they make up a, you know, they're going to play, right?
00:59:49 They're going to play on teams,
00:59:50 and they're going to catch touchdown for us.
00:59:52 So we put a lot of effort into it.
00:59:55 And I think that it's exciting to those guys,
00:59:57 because we do put so many of them on scholarship, right?
01:00:00 If you're about the right stuff and you come here
01:00:02 and do everything we ask of you, it usually works out.
01:00:04 So it's a massive piece of what we do.
01:00:07 And Coach Brown is obviously, you know,
01:00:10 the kind of the catalyst behind it.
01:00:11 He talks about walk-ons all the time
01:00:13 and how important it is for us to go get those guys.
01:00:15 - Yeah, the old second chancers, man.
01:00:19 I love it.
01:00:20 - No doubt, no doubt.
01:00:21 - I'm thinking about it.
01:00:22 You were a story.
01:00:23 You were the modern versions of Owen Schmidt,
01:00:26 if there is such a thing.
01:00:27 But I'm saying the story behind you walking on,
01:00:29 you doing all the right things,
01:00:30 you being about the right stuff.
01:00:32 I mean, we're talking Hudson Clement.
01:00:33 We're talking Preston Fox.
01:00:35 And these are our kids who basically,
01:00:37 you just described, Trey.
01:00:39 I think those make for incredible stories.
01:00:41 But what's the next big date?
01:00:44 We appreciate your time.
01:00:45 You guys got anything further?
01:00:46 My last question will be this.
01:00:49 This is always incredible stuff, Trey,
01:00:50 when you jump in here and join us
01:00:52 and give us this level of insight.
01:00:53 You take our 200 level show up to the 400 level, right?
01:00:57 But--
01:00:58 - This is the all 22 view right here.
01:01:00 - That's the all 22.
01:01:01 What's the next big date on, crazy as it might be,
01:01:05 the new calendar of a recruiting coordinator?
01:01:08 Here we sit mid-January,
01:01:10 going into the third week in January.
01:01:11 I know you had some junior days.
01:01:13 What's the next critical date
01:01:15 coming up on your crazy calendar?
01:01:17 - Well, right now, like I mentioned earlier,
01:01:20 so starting on June 12th, right,
01:01:23 we started a contact period, okay?
01:01:25 So in the past, we had not been able to go out
01:01:28 and contact seniors or juniors, right?
01:01:30 So the NCAA started that this year
01:01:33 where you can have contact with juniors in the school.
01:01:36 So we're currently in that right now.
01:01:38 That goes until February 3rd.
01:01:40 So essentially, we finished up signing day.
01:01:43 Everybody take a deep breath,
01:01:45 but we got Coach Brown on the road in three weeks,
01:01:50 and he's got to go see 25, right?
01:01:53 So before we hopped on tonight,
01:01:55 him and I just got off the phone.
01:01:57 He finished up a day in Pittsburgh.
01:01:58 He hit seven schools up there.
01:02:01 And he's been on the road all week.
01:02:02 We've been nonstop.
01:02:04 We've got guys out all over the country right now.
01:02:06 Coach Reagan's in Illinois.
01:02:08 Man, let's see, Shadon's in Maryland.
01:02:12 I mean, we're all over the place right now.
01:02:14 Now the weather is screwing us up big time.
01:02:16 We've had a bunch of, it's been,
01:02:18 I've been on the weather channel more this week,
01:02:21 watching radars, 72-hour radars.
01:02:23 Like, I'm exhausted by the weather.
01:02:25 And we got one more day tomorrow
01:02:28 that we're trying to finish up on the road to a strong day,
01:02:31 and the weather's going to screw that up again.
01:02:33 So we're trying to make it through the next two weeks,
01:02:36 make sure we go see all the 25s we need to see,
01:02:38 which, you know, that kind of gets back to it, Jed,
01:02:41 is it's so important for us to have the amount of people
01:02:45 and staff that we have, right?
01:02:46 Like, we have to work so far ahead
01:02:47 because by the time we finish up the 24 class,
01:02:50 which is, you know, this is where I'm extremely thankful
01:02:52 to have a staff of guys here in the recruiting department
01:02:56 that worked their absolute ass off
01:02:59 to make this all possible,
01:03:01 and they don't get a ton of credit,
01:03:02 but, you know, they're working ahead,
01:03:04 so that way I can finish out the 24 class,
01:03:06 get all the paperwork, get all that stuff going, right?
01:03:08 And then we're straight on the 25,
01:03:11 and we're in a good spot,
01:03:13 and we can go plan a contact period,
01:03:15 which is, essentially, we're out five days,
01:03:17 five days out of the week for about four weeks or so, right?
01:03:20 It's roughly about 39 days.
01:03:23 And Coach Brown's in a private airplane,
01:03:24 he's flying all around, right?
01:03:25 Seeing, you know, he's in multiple states
01:03:27 throughout the day, so,
01:03:29 Jed, I can't really see past these next two weeks.
01:03:31 Just, you know, kind of pray everything works out,
01:03:34 and it's a massive puzzle.
01:03:37 So, and then, obviously, we've got the second signing period.
01:03:40 I don't think that we're gonna sign any high schoolers
01:03:42 unless we go find somebody on the road here
01:03:44 in the next couple days,
01:03:45 but I think we're pretty much done with high school,
01:03:47 so it used to be you look forward to that February,
01:03:50 I don't even know the date this year,
01:03:51 I think it's the seventh, right?
01:03:52 It doesn't really matter to us.
01:03:54 - It used to matter. - We try to wrap up.
01:03:56 Yeah, we try to wrap up all our high schoolers in December.
01:03:59 So, after that, then we'll start rolling on spring visits.
01:04:03 It doesn't end, but, you know,
01:04:06 when we're out on the road,
01:04:07 those are extremely important times, right?
01:04:09 We have to be really, really smart
01:04:11 about how we use our time out on the road,
01:04:13 who we're seeing, getting information right,
01:04:15 because those are the guys
01:04:16 that we're gonna be signing next year.
01:04:17 So, you know, we'll see, I guarantee you,
01:04:21 in the last, you know, in the last week,
01:04:24 and then the next three weeks,
01:04:25 we probably saw a majority of the guys
01:04:26 that we'll end up signing, right?
01:04:27 So, but it's being smart, getting, you know,
01:04:30 talking to counselors, talking to principals,
01:04:32 doing all that stuff.
01:04:34 So, this is a massive,
01:04:36 anytime coaches are out on the road,
01:04:37 it's usually not a lot of sleep.
01:04:39 My wife doesn't see me very much,
01:04:41 and it is a stressful time.
01:04:43 So, that's what we're doing right now.
01:04:45 - Well, Trey, we love it, man.
01:04:48 Big O, I don't know if you had anything there
01:04:50 that you wanted to jump in on, but--
01:04:52 - Road Warriors.
01:04:54 - Yeah.
01:04:55 - I mean, you guys get it done, man.
01:04:56 It's such an incredible behind the football,
01:05:00 behind it all now, with this new style of just NIL
01:05:05 and recruiting, it's great.
01:05:09 - It is, you know, like, Trey,
01:05:10 I think I probably shared this with you last year
01:05:12 when you were on, but I worked for the Steelers,
01:05:14 and like, so many just fans, right?
01:05:17 Like, they look at WVU and their love of WVU football
01:05:20 'cause it's a 12-game season over three or four months,
01:05:23 right, and the football, you know, 17 games in the NFL,
01:05:27 and okay, you got the draft and whatever,
01:05:28 but I really don't think the average person realizes
01:05:32 how much goes on behind the scenes,
01:05:33 how football never sleeps.
01:05:35 For being the sport that has the shortest regular season,
01:05:38 you know, compared to basketball and baseball and hockey
01:05:41 and all those things, the grind is just unbelievable
01:05:45 that you, all your coworkers, all your team go through.
01:05:48 So thank you so much for this.
01:05:50 It's the off season for us, right, from a fan perspective,
01:05:53 but I know for you guys, it's just turned the page.
01:05:55 It's a new chapter.
01:05:56 Here we go, onward and upward.
01:05:57 So thank you so much again for an hour or so here
01:06:01 of your very valuable time, this time of year and always,
01:06:05 and go knock 'em dead,
01:06:07 and we'll talk to you a year from now.
01:06:09 - Yeah, absolutely.
01:06:10 Looking forward to it.
01:06:11 I was afraid that, you know, Jed asked me,
01:06:13 he's like, "Hey, you want to come on?"
01:06:14 And then I never heard from him,
01:06:15 so I just assumed he was being nice,
01:06:17 and maybe I tanked the ratings last time or something.
01:06:19 (laughing)
01:06:20 - Trey, I think you were the first guest
01:06:22 we ever had here on the podcast,
01:06:24 if I'm remembering correctly.
01:06:25 So we always got time for our day one.
01:06:27 - Yeah, well, no, I appreciate that.
01:06:29 I appreciate that, Wes, Owen, Jed.
01:06:31 I appreciate you guys, and anytime you need me, I'm here.
01:06:35 - Let's go, baby.
01:06:37 - Appreciate it.
01:06:38 - OG, right into the podcast.
01:06:39 - That's right, our day one.
01:06:41 Trey Nye, our director of recruiting for WVU football.
01:06:43 Trey, thanks so much,
01:06:44 and go spend some time with your wife, right?
01:06:47 We don't want you getting in trouble.
01:06:48 - No doubt, no doubt.
01:06:50 I appreciate you guys.
01:06:51 - Thank you, Trey.
01:06:52 There he is once again, the director.
01:06:55 The director of recruiting for WVU football, Trey Nye.
01:06:58 Oh, you gotta love it.
01:06:59 A final thank you to our friends at Johnson Equipment.
01:07:02 Make sure you're checking out their new location
01:07:03 on Route 33, right outside of Weston.
01:07:06 That'll do it for this edition of ITG.
01:07:08 Like we teased earlier, though, we got some,
01:07:10 I mean, we got some really exciting guests here.
01:07:12 Trey's our lead-off hitter, right?
01:07:13 And he's the best one in the business.
01:07:16 We got some other people coming down the lineup here.
01:07:19 So make sure you're not going anywhere.
01:07:20 We'll be rocking and rolling with you
01:07:21 the entire off-season here every single week.
01:07:24 And the one thing we ask of you as always,
01:07:26 before we go, is to be an ear and tell an ear
01:07:28 about your favorite WVU football podcast for Trey,
01:07:32 and the best teammates in the business.
01:07:33 It's the signal caller Jed Drenning
01:07:34 in the runaway beer truck going Schmidt.
01:07:36 Thank you to our producer Skylar Callahan as well.
01:07:39 I'm Wesley Uler.
01:07:40 Take care, everybody.
01:07:41 You've been in the gun.
01:07:43 (door opening)
01:07:45 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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