Neal Brown Comments on Several Members of WVU's 2022 Signing Class
QB Nicco Marchiol
"His mom is from North Carolina, so they have some family here on the east coast. He's got some 'it' factor. I think he's a guy that's going to be a fan favorite from day one. He's got charisma, strong leadership capabilities. He's student of the game, he loves football. He's been groomed from an early age by his father, Ken, to be a Division I and hopefully, an NFL quarterback. But when you go watch him play, he's a dual-threat, left-handed but the ball comes out of his hand really smooth. He's got a strong arm, he can run, he's a physical runner, and he's a great teammate. He's the first to congratulate his teammates when they score. He meets the defense when they come off the field. He handles adversity a lot better than most young quarterbacks."
RB Lyn-J Dixon (Clemson transfer)
"He went to Taylor County High School in Butler, Georgia. One of the last quarterbacks we signed there at Troy, [Gunnar Watson], he was from Butler. Same class as Lyn-J, so Lyn-J came and was around. He would ride with Gunnar to games, camps, and those types of things so we had a pre-existing relationship. The people at Clemson, there's several there that I really trust and they were all really positive. So, he productive plus he's the right kind of guy."
TE Corbin Page
"We felt like Corbin was the top prospect in the state this year. He's really invested a lot of time and energy in changing his body. This time a year ago, he was probably 30-40 pounds heavier. He spent the first three years of his high school career being an in-line tight end really just blocking and then occasionally throw him a pass. This year they changed offenses due to offensive personnel. He plays wideout the whole time, has great body control. He came here for our 7 on 7 tournament and we've got team from all over this kind of four hour radius against some really good schools from the DMV area and the Philadelphia area, he made play after play. I think that he can do everything that we want a tight end to do. He's going to add a receiving element that outside of Mike [O'Laughlin] and potentially Charles Finley, we haven't had."
WR Jeremiah Aaron
"He's a kid that was just really, really productive. He's going to have the ability to play inside and outside. I like Jeremiah because I like his skill set, he was a great perimeter blocker, he's strong, and he was really good in the return game. He's a punt returner which is what we need and he's a proven kick returner too."
OL Sullivan Weidman
"He's big. I think he can play any of the spots guard or tackle - really strong guy, he stays on his feet." Mentioned that he will start out at tackle.
OL Maurice Hamilton
"He's a guy that has changed his body, he's lost approximately 40 pounds over the last 18 months. And I would say his ability to bend, because it's a pad level game inside, that's really what drew us to him. He could get low and he generated movement. He's got more length than some people that you see with that build sometimes. We feel like Mo is going to be prepared." Mentioned that he will start out at guard.
OL Charlie Katarincic
"He's from up the road but he's played against quality competition at Choate Rosemary." Mentioned that he will start out at tackle.
OL Landen Livingston
"We think he could be guard or center. He's got great football intelligence. He plays in an offense where he pulls and traps. He's really athletic and light on his feet." Mentioned that he will start at center.
DL Zeiqui Lawton
"I think it's important if you get an opportunity to bring back homegrown talent and a guy that can definitely play. He's changed his body and I think he's a really good fit for what we're going to do on the interior defensive line."
EDGE Asani Redwood
"It's a great story because less than 18 months ago, the kid weighed about 185 pounds and he's 265 now. He's only played two years of football and it's not this deal like he played backyard football, watch it, or anything. When he grew up he played soccer. He played at a great program, Collins Hill just won the 7A state championship in the state of Georgia. They're going to play in a national championship game in Las Vegas on Saturday and the kid broke the single-season sack record. He had 19.5 sacks. I mean, that's a lot of sacks because eventually you figure out I better slide my protection to him, right? And that means he's still winning. He's a guy that is just now scratching the surface, he still has so much to learn. He reminds me some of Akheem [Mesidor] in a lot of different ways. A lot of the same qualities that we saw in Akheem, I see those in Asani as well.
EDGE Aric Burton
"Aric is very much a developmental player. He was born in the United States and then went to Germany and then just came back and played his senior year at Clearwater Academy International. He's long, really lean right now. It's going to be a year to two year project for him to get to the weight. He's got great ball get off and that was what really drew us to him. We need to affect more passes. We haven't created takeaways at the rate that we need to. We've got to get our hands on more balls and get more deflections up front. He's every bit of 6'5". I forget what his wingspan is but it's really long. He's got to learn and gain weight."
DB Hershey McLaurin
"He was a high school quarterback, hurts his knee and misses the entire year. Great student. Had several opportunities to go play college football out of high school or use his academic prowess. He chose to go to Jones County junior college, one of the best junior college programs in the country and moves to safety and he looks the part. He's long, every bit of 6'2.5"-6'3", 200 pounds plus. We fully anticipate him coming in and being able to compete."
P Oliver Straw
"Yeah, absolutely. That's why we signed him," Brown said when asked if Straw could be an impact right away. "He's got to go win the job but that's why we signed him. He's from the ProKick organization and if you look across college football, most of the guys that are from Australia are through ProKick. Ollie, he's unique. He can kick with both feet. He can roll to his right, he can roll to his left. He kicks spirals, he kicks end over end. Ollie will be able to give us the opportunity to change field position. We'll kick away from returners. People will have to use two returners. Two returners means less rushers. We think he could be potentially a game-changing type player within special teams."
You can follow us for future coverage by liking us on Facebook & following us Twitter:
Facebook - @WVUonSI
Twitter - @SI_WVU and Schuyler Callihan at @Callihan_.