Walter Young Bear Credits a Former West Virginia Legend for His Commitment to WVU

Offensive lineman Walter Young Bear chose to play for the Mountaineers during the winter transfer window. When he was asked why he ultimately decided to play for West Virginia, he answered, "The trust, and it's weird, I have a different scenario because two of my former coaches are Coach (Ryan) Stanchek and Coach Greg Frey."

Ryan Stanchek was a West Virginia legend when he suited up for the Mountaineers from 2004-2008. He played for Coach Rich Rodriguez, so he was able to provide valuable advice to Young Bear to use for his decision. During his career at WVU, he found himself on All-American teams in 2007 and 2008. He finished his career with 48 consecutive starts.

He started his coaching career in 2011 as an offensive quality control assistant at Florida State and landed his first on-field job at Alcorn State in 2014 as an offensive line coach. He was promoted to run game coordinator in 2017, and then to offensive coordinator in 2018. He then had short stints at Southern Miss, Florida A&M, and Austin Peay before becoming Tulsa's offensive line coach in 2023, where he got the chance to coach Young Bear. Currently, he is serving as the co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at UTEP.

Young Bear's other mentor, Coach Greg Frey, spent time coaching with Rich Rodriguez from 2007-2010. In 2007, Frey served as the offensive line coach at West Virginia and helped the Mountaineers to an 11-2 overall record. After that, he followed Rodriguez to Michigan and served as the offensive line coach there as well. Fast forward to 2024, and Frey gets named the offensive line coach at Tulsa University.

Both coaches filled Young Bear in on what Coach Rodriguez is all about, which ended up being the main reason he committed to WVU.

"A lot of time in the portal, it's about who you can really trust. Everybody's trying to sell you something, but you don't really know until you actually get there. I was sold partially because I had two former coaches that told me what West Virginia is going to be like," said Young Bear.

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