Rich Rod Reveals When WVU Could Get Prince Strachan Back

There's not been a ton of good or bad news on the injury front early in the season for West Virginia, but last night, head coach Rich Rodriguez officially announced that defensive lineman Darius Wiley had been lost for the season with a lower body injury, as expected.

Tuesday afternoon, he provided a semi encouraging/disappointing update on veteran wide receiver Prince Strachan.

“Hopefully he’ll be back maybe for next week’s game," he stated. "He’ll be out again this week, but he’s got a chance to play in two weeks. We’ll see where that’s at.”

With the way the schedule is set up, it makes it a pretty easy call for the medical staff to hold him out another week to get him ready. They didn't need him to beat Coastal Carolina, and the same can be said about this weekend's game against UT Martin. The only downside to it is that he is not going to have any reps before he goes out there and plays against a Power Four opponent — how about that as your welcome back?

Rodriguez's wording was a little confusing because he said " maybe next week's game," but then mentioned two weeks, so is that the two weeks of practice leading up to the neutral site game against Virginia, or two weeks as in he could be back for the Big 12 opener against Oklahoma State?

My guess, and it's purely speculation because they keep all that injury stuff close to the vest, is that he meant the Virginia game. If that is the case and he is able to play, that will be a nice boost for the passing attack, even if he is on some sort of a snap count. That gives Mike Hawkins Jr. two big-bodied receivers on the perimeter to go along with the speedy and shifty DJ Epps at the slot.

Strachan got a bit of a late start in fall camp, continuing to recover from the shoulder injury he sustained in the spring game, but he did practice some. Unfortunately, he got it banged up in practice, which is why he is missing the first couple of games of the season.

With Strachan out, we will likely see John Neider remain in the starting lineup at the Z with Jaden Bray filling his spot at the X. Once Strachan returns, Bray will probably move back to the Z, kicking Neider to a rotational role.

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