Rich Rodriguez Remembers Chris Wilson Jr., Offers Support to His Family and Community

The worst loss in life is life itself, and on Monday, the West Virginia football program learned of the heartbreaking news that class of 2027 defensive line commit Chris Wilson Jr. had been shot and killed in Muncie, Indiana.

WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez put out a statement Monday afternoon, but also opened up his radio show last night by spending a handful of minutes talking about the devastating news and how good of a young man Chris Wilson was.

"I got called about 5 a.m. this morning. (Defensive Line ) Coach Deke (Adams), who got called from Chris' dad and didn't know the details at the time but a great young man. A great family. You remember the official visits because you spend two or three days with them, and you remember little bits and pieces of your conversations, but they laughed the whole time. They had the time of their life on the weekend. Chris was a guy we were really high on. Had a good personality, was fun to be around, and he had a lot of offers and stuff like that. But I'm not even thinking about the football aspect now. I mean, his family and everybody that knows him and his school, he's really popular; everyone's heartbroken.

"I don't know the details, so I can't comment on it, but it's really crazy a 17-year-old guy- something like that would happen right there in the prime of his life," Rodriguez continued. "I know his family knows all of Mountaineer Nation is behind them and thinking about them at this time. My whole staff is trying to do what we can to reach out to them. He has great support people at the high school there, and we're going to do whatever we can to help the family."

Coach Adams also commented on Wilson's passing in a post on X, stating, "RIP Chris! It was my pleasure recruiting and getting to know you! You will be greatly missed! Wonderful young man, gone too soon! 🥲 #SpecialKid"

Again, our thoughts and prayers are with Chris Wilson's family, friends, and the community of Yorktown as they mourn the loss of a great young man. I'm not sure what exactly WVU is allowed to do from a support standpoint, but hopefully they are able to help them to the greatest extent and honor him for a moment during this weekend's home game against the Arizona Wildcats.

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