Is WVU Open to Pursuing Familiar Faces in the Portal?

Neal Brown talks recruiting the portal.

Every year, teams all around the country lose players to the transfer portal. In some rare situations, someone will transfer out and transfer back after a year or two. 

West Virginia men's basketball experienced this with Emmitt Matthews Jr. who began his career at WVU, went back home to Washington for a year before coming back to finish out his career at WVU. 

The last time it happened on the football side was in 2017 with David Sills V. Sills wanted to pursue his opportunity of being a quarterback but after one year at the JUCO level, he ended up back in Morgantown as a receiver and had a terrific two years with Will Grier throwing him the ball.

Right now, there is one former Mountaineer who is in the portal - wide receiver Winston Wright Jr. (Florida State) and two former commits who ended up signing elsewhere - defensive lineman Justin Benton (Houston) and Zion Young (Michigan State). As long as no bridges are burned, WVU head coach Neal Brown is always open to the idea of bringing former players and commits back.

"It'll be on a case by case basis. A lot of it depends on how they exited the program," Brown said during a Zoom call with the media last week. "I think that's what's really important - how they handled themselves on the way out. Are there guys that we would welcome back? Yes, the answer would be yes. Are there some that we would not welcome back? The answer to that would be yes as well. There's some guys that left for some reasons that I understood. I would have loved to have kept them but I did understand kind of where they were at that point and they handled themselves in the right manner and did it in the right way. If those guys wanted to come back, then we would welcome them back."

Brown also mentioned that he would like to add one "proven" receiver to the roster this offseason to help make up for the loss of Devin Carter and to also add more depth to a room that's seen a handful of departures. 

Wright could be that guy but as of today, WVU has not sent out an offer to him. Benton and Young haven't been offered either, but that could change.

Between The Eers: What Will WVU Get in the Portal?

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