True Freshman RB Amari Latimer Has Been Exactly What WVU Hoped He Would Be

Things are going exceptionally well for the talented freshman back from Georgia.

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Living up to incredibly high expectations is not an easy thing to do for an 18-year-old. I don't care how long they've been considered a top prospect, how many Power Four offers they had, or what their stats were in high school. That transition from high school to college is no joke, and it goes beyond the football field.

West Virginia true freshman running back Amari Latimer has been as good as advertised, dating back to the moment he first set foot on campus. He put together a strong spring, and that has spilled over into the first two weeks of fall camp.

“It’s been really good competition," head coach Rich Rodriguez said. "I mean, the big guy, Amari Latimer, is what we thought he was — a 230-pound, downhill guy. He’s a really good football player. We knew he was going to play when we signed him, and he’s had a really good camp. But (Chris) Talley, (Andre) Devine, (Lawrence) Autry showed some things, (Martavious) Boswell, Darius Morant — all those guys have shown a little something.”

What type of production can we expect from Latimer in 2026?

WVU Athletics Communications

Cam Cook is, of course, going to be the bell cow, but there will still be a ton of carries on the table for Latimer and others. When this offense is humming, you are looking at 600+ rushes per season, and that includes the quarterbacks, who will absolutely factor into the equation.

Latimer has insane burst. Like Cook, he doesn't have the blazing speed that you're accustomed to seeing from Rich Rod's running backs, but when you are as big as he is, you don't need to outrun everyone. Elite contact balance and a strong lower half allow him to rip off big runs. He'll run right through tackles, and when he hits the edge, it's like a locomotive barreling down the tracks at full steam.

Somewhere in the ballpark of 650 yards is what I'm thinking for him this fall. That seems high for a freshman, but he is the clear-cut No. 2 option in the running back room, and in Rich Rod's final two teams at Jax State, his second-leading rusher (albeit both being QBs) had 1,344 and 708 yards. Yes, Mike Hawkins Jr. is going to run quite a bit, but he's not going to lean on him nearly as much as he did with Zion Webb and Tyler Huff at Jax State, mainly because he didn't have a second back like Latimer to give the ball to.