The transfer portal taketh from WVU, but what did it giveth?

According to On3, WVU had 23 football transfer portal departures, tied with UCLA and Kentucky. Only 12 other schools, led by Washington State’s 36, had more.
Of course, one would expect a lot of turnover after a coaching change from Neal Brown to Rich Rodriguez.
Yet the question for Mountaineer fans isn’t what left, but what’s coming to Morgantown?
I’m always curious too, so I looked at team portal rankings, but also dug through the WVU signee bios, as graciously distributed by football SID Mike Montoro.
Which are the most intriguing new Mountaineers of the 29 incoming?
Well, here’s my list. Understand that Rodriguez didn’t exactly set the hair, er, college football world on fire with the group. On3 rated WVU’s transfer class No. 57. Meanwhile, the Big 12’s Texas Tech was No. 1, Houston was No. 16, Kansas was No. 18, Baylor was No. 19, Kansas State was No. 21, Cincinnati was No. 22, UCF was No. 28, Colorado was No. 32, Arizona State was No. 34, BYU was No. 36, Iowa State was No. 50, Oklahoma State was No. 51, Arizona was No. 52, TCU was No. 54 and Utah was No. 56 as of Tuesday afternoon.
WVU was lowest among Big 12 teams.
I’m not putting a ton of stock into it, though, because you’ll see Alabama at 66 with eight transfers in and Texas at 43 with four. (Can that be right?)
But let’s look at what the Mountaineers DO have out of the portal.
According to Rivals, the top WVU transfer in is four-star prospect Jimmori Robinson, a 6-4, 262-pound outside linebacker from UTSA. Nationally, he was No. 110 in the service’s transfer portal rankings. (What kind of hurts WVU fans is four four-star players have opted out: running back CJ Donaldson (Ohio State), linebacker Josiah Trotter (Missouri) and offensive linemen Tomas Rimac (Virginia Tech) and Johnny Williams (Missouri).)
Yet let’s stay on point, shall we?
“Mori” Robinson had 110 tackles and 15 sacks for UTSA last season. The former JUCO was simply a busy man on the Roadrunners’ defense. A redshirt senior, he’s certainly experienced and appears to have a shot at the NFL.
The second highest rated transfer, according to Rivals, was cornerback Jordan Scruggs of South Alabama at No. 175. He played for Major Applewhite — yes, the former Texas QB — before hitting Morgantown and is another experienced redshirt senior.
Staying in the secondary, I’m interested in seeing safety Fred Perry of Jacksonville State, Rodriguez’s former school, listed No. 180 among transfers. The senior started every game for RichRod and was a 2024 first-team All-Conference USA safety.
New WVU cornerback Michael Coats Jr. was ranked but the No. 264 transfer by Rivals, but I’m still intrigued with the redshirt senior from Nevada. Broadcaster and former Notre Dame guard Mike Golic Jr. posted on X that “WVU got a dawg” in Coats. He said he “saw Coats when Nevada hosted Georgia Southern, dude just erases an entire side of the field.”
Offensive lineman Walter Young Bear of Tulsa was No. 431. And how can you not root for a guy named Walter Young Bear? It sounds like he worked hard as a former walk-on to starting. He played against Oklahoma as a Norman, Okla., native.
No others were rated in the top 500, but receiver Oran Singleton of Eastern Michigan (No. 538) also sounds intriguing. He was second team All-Mid-American Conference and was 4A all-state in Florida as a high school player with a career 3,113 and 26 touchdowns. He was the MVP of the Palm Beach County All-Star game.
Of the kids from Power 4 schools, Rivals has Washington transfer DB Justin Harrington No. 562; linebacker Ashton Woods of North Carolina at 618; offensive lineman Robby Martin of N.C. State at No. 654; quarterback transfer Jaylen Henderson of Texas A&M at 904; offensive lineman transfer Ty’kieast Crawford of Arkansas at 1115; and defensive line transfer Kimo Makane’ole of LSU down at 1,322. I didn’t see Iowa tight end transfer Johnny Pascuzzi ranked, though he should have been after appearing in 10 games for Kirk Ferenz last season.
Of the Jacksonville State kids besides Perry, wide receiver Cam Vaughn was No. 641, cornerback Derek Carter was No. 1,188, wideout Jarod Bowie was 2,076 and tight end Jacob Barrick was No. 2,120.
So, yeah, it’s nothing like Georgia QB Carson Beck transferring to Miami. There are no five star athletes heading to Morgantown.
But it’s impossible for services like Rivals, etc., to accurately rate all these guys. And RichRod did it before at WVU with just a handful of high-profile recruits.
It’ll be interesting to see which gems are in this group.
+ + +
Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.