Why Ross Hodge Believes WVU Is Perfectly Positioned to Win Big in Regional Recruiting

Even in the age of the transfer portal and NIL, regional recruiting is not dead.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge knows the importance of being able to land some of the top talent in the area and is fully aware of how many Big 12-caliber players there are, who are just a short drive away from Morgantown.

New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio, the DMV, and of course, West Virginia, are all spots that Hodge and his staff are going to pour a lot of focus into. During his radio show on Tuesday night, he discussed the importance of recruiting regionally.

"I think it's very important. If you put a tac on Morgantown, and if you start your little circle thing that gets a little bigger, you always want to start inward and take care of your backyard. There have been good players that have came here in Morgantown and in the state. Whether it's here or the DMV... that's one cool thing about our location, it is shocking when you tell people how close you are to it feels like everywhere. Like, how could you be three and a half hours to Baltimore and five hours to New York, five hours to Cleveland, and six hours to North Carolina? It doesn't even make sense, but you are centrally located around a lot of good players."

In addition to taking care of his own backyard, Hodge is also going to recruit nationally, which we have seen already in this recruiting class, landing a pair of teammates from Bella Vista Prep in Scottsdale, Arizona, in Miles Sadler and Aliou Dioum. Sadler is originally from Ontario, Canada, and Dioum is from Senegal, a country in West Africa.

"Our brand is powerful. It's a respected brand nationally, internationally. The West Virginia brand holds a lot of weight to a lot of different people, and it's been cool to be able to share our vision with families and players and have them buy in to it."

In future classes, Hodge is targeting a handful of players in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio, who have also treated the Mountaineers kindly over the years.

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