One More Year? Rich Rod Hints at Jaden Bray’s Potential Return to WVU Next Season

Before the season really got going, West Virginia suffered some key injuries at key spots on the offensive side of the ball, losing starting running back Jahiem White and wide receiver Jaden Bray in Week 2 against Ohio.

Pretty much everyone in the running back room has missed extended time this season, further magnifying the loss of White and his make-you-miss ability. Bray's impact probably doesn't get talked about nearly enough, but it should. If he's on the field, now the defense has to be worried about two long, lengthy, reliable playmakers as opposed to keying in on Cam Vaughn. This offense would look so much different simply by having Bray available.

Unfortunately, neither White nor Bray will be back in uniform this season, but head coach Rich Rodriguez provided a promising update on each of them during his radio show Monday night.

"They both have had surgery. Jaden had a similar injury, I think, before, so this was kind of fixing that one up, and that's gone well. And Jahiem's surgery, he just got back, he had an appointment last week to check on that, and he seems to be doing good too. Those guys are around every day, and obviously, we miss them. It's hard for them. If I were them, it would be hard to stand there and watch and not play, but they want to be around their teammates. Thankfully, should be able to get this year back and be ready to roll in spring.

Now, that final sentence is what piqued my attention. Is he talking about Bray there? I would assume so, considering White has both his regular redshirt and medical redshirt available to him. He'll be back. As for Bray, he's going to need to apply for a medical waiver, which one can assume will be granted. He's battled injuries throughout his career, but from what I found, he has only used a regular redshirt, which came in 2023. When he suffered his season-ending injury last year with WVU, he was already past the four-game mark.

If Bray does get this year back, the offense will have another proven building block for the 2026 campaign.

Bray's career breakdown

2021: Oklahoma State, 12 games

2022: Oklahoma State, 3 games (redshirted)

2023: Oklahoma State, 10 games

2024: West Virginia, 5 games

2025: West Virginia, 2 games

Bray's career breakdown

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