Four Future Mountaineers Set to Play for Junior College National Championship

The junior college ranks treated West Virginia well this recruiting cycle, specifically Hutchinson Community College, which will send four players to the Mountaineers here soon: DE Darius Wiley, DL K.J. Henson, CB Da'Mun Allen, and CB Rayshawn Reynolds.

Hutch is a place Rich Rodriguez has dipped into before and will continue to recruit moving forward. They develop players, win a bunch of games, and have their guys prepared for the jump to Division I football. Those four incoming Mountaineers will have a chance to win a national championship here in a week and a half, thanks to a dominating 27-0 performance over Northwest Mississippi CC over the weekend. They'll take on Iowa Western on December 17th for the title at 6 p.m. ET on ESPNU.

Last week on the In the Gun podcast, I asked Rodriguez if the junior college ranks are still being overlooked, and he answered without hesitation, “Oh, no question it’s overlooked. When the portal thing started a few years ago, everybody started looking for portal guys, and the JC guys got lost in the shuffle — not all of them, but a lot of them. And there’s some really, really good JC programs, like Hutchinson is a program we’ve recruited guys out of every year, everywhere I’ve been, and they’ve got some really good players.

"The other thing about it, when you get the JC guys, they’re the least spoiled of anybody you recruit. If you give them a sandwich, they’re like, ‘Are you kidding me? I get a free sandwich?’ Those guys, they come here, they see our facilities and see what you do for your players, and they’re tickled to death. But again, it’s about picking the right guys and fit what we want to do.”

Pass rusher Darius Wiley is the most coveted among the Hutch transfers, totaling 49 tackles, 17.5 tackles for loss, 8.5 sacks, two pass breakups, and one forced fumble so far this season. He has already been named the KJCCC Defensive Player of the Year.

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