Tony Gibson Plucks a Mountaineer Out of the Transfer Portal

Sunday night, former West Virginia offensive lineman Xavier Bausley announced that he will be rounding out his collegiate career at Marshall.

The Dunbar, West Virginia native began his career at Jacksonville State, where he played for Rich Rodriguez and, as a redshirt freshman, earned All-America Second Team honors by The Athletic. Following that 2023 season, he made the move to Morgantown, joining the Mountaineers under Neal Brown and then offensive line coach Matt Moore.

He dealt with some injuries throughout his time in the Old Gold and Blue, which impacted his chances not only play but also to potentially start. The previous staff believed he would be in line to start at right tackle in 2025. The new staff would have had him in a fall camp battle with Arkansas transfer Ty'Kieast Crawford, and even if he had lost out on the job, there's a good chance we would have seen more of him throughout the season had he not missed some time.

While West Virginia does have some things to figure out along the offensive line, it is in pretty good shape at the two tackle spots. Nick Krahe will return as the starting left tackle, and incoming freshman Kevin Brown is expected to start right away. JUCO product Deshawn Woods will join Malik Agbo and Mickel Clay as backup options, so there's really no open path to playing time for Bausley. At Marshall, he'll get an opportunity to start and get some stuff on tape for the next level, wherever that may be.

During the middle of the season, WVU head coach Rich Rodriguez shared a funny story about Xavier's father during his weekly radio show.

“When I saw Bausley for the first time, I said, ‘Hey Xavier, I’m back.’ Are you going to leave again? He’s a West Virginia guy, so we had a big chuckle.

"Did I tell you the Bausley story? We were recruiting him at Jax State and him and his dad, they got a great family. Usually, when we talk, we have them fill out a form and say, ‘Hey, tell them something unique about you that we might want to know about you.’ He said, ‘My dad burned all the Rich Rod things, pictures, and everything in 2007. He put it on fire, cussed you out, and all that kind of stuff.’ I had a good laugh with his father about that. I said, ‘See now, you went and burned all your stuff, you might have already had some West Virginia stuff.’ Now he’s going to have to buy it all new.”

MORE STORIES FROM WEST VIRGINIA ON SI