Last year, I created Version 1.0 of the breakdown of the scholarship situation at WVU and the outgoing (and incoming) transfers. With the first players “self-redshirting” (aka planning to transfer) coming out, it’s time to start a new edition of the Transfer and Scholarship Tracker. It will be your one-stop shop for the most complete picture of every position group on the WVU Football team.
Here’s what to expect below….
Please note that, with this tracker starting before the season is over, the number of scholarships accounted for for 2024 will definitely exceed 85. That situation should rectify itself in the offseason as players enter the transfer portal. Also, we will be making assumptions on a couple players for now regarding redshirting or not in 2023. We can change that once (or if) they play five games or not.
11:30am ET on 07/09/2024 – Tight end Victor Wikstrom, one of two players EerSports was told would not be with the team this fall, is not listed on the roster in the official WVU Football media guide that was released at Big 12 Media Days.
10:00pm ET on 06/14/2024 – Every commit has now signed and enrolled at West Virginia, putting the current number at 88.
7:00pm ET on 06/13/2024 – West Virginia University announced today that every high school and junior college signee has enrolled on campus for class. They also announced the additions of Ryder Burton and Dontez Fagan, two transfer commitments that are now enrolled. That leaves only transfer wide receiver Justin Robinson and transfer cornerback Kekoura Tarnue as not yet officially enrolled.
12:00pm ET on 05/21/2024 – Former Mississippi State wide receiver Justin Robinson has committed to WVU after making a visit over the weekend. The former Georgia signee and four-star recruit has two years of eligibility remaining.
12:00pm ET on 05/11/2024 – Former BYU quarterback Ryder Burton and former Jacksonville State cornerback Kekour Tarnue have committed to WVU after making visits this week. That puts the Mountaineers back over the scholarship limit.
10:00am ET on 05/07/2024 – Gregory Genross, the nation’s No. 1 junior college tight end in 2024, has committed to WVU Football. He puts the Mountaineers back at the maximum 85 scholarships.
11:30am ET on 05/01/2024 – Wide receiver Graeson Malashevich has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Malashevich will have one year of eligibility remaining.
11:30am ET on 04/30/2024 – Edge rusher Brayden Dudley has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Dudley will have two years of eligibility remaining. For the first time in a long time, the Mountaineers are down to the 85-man limit.
9:30am ET on 04/30/2024 – Defensive back Montre Miller has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. The seventh year senior was coming off an injury that wiped out his 2023 season. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
3:30pm ET on 04/28/2024 – Transfer defensive back Dontez Fagan out of Charlotte committed to West Virginia this morning. He adds another player to the roster, and he has one year of eligibility remaining.
3:30pm ET on 04/25/2024 – Quarterback Sean Boyle announces that he is entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. He will have four years of eligibility remaining.
5:00pm ET on 04/23/2024 – Wide receiver EJ Horton announces that he is entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. He is doing so as a graduate transfer.
9:40am ET on 04/16/2024 – No change to the numbers here, as we reported back on February 1st that OL Charlie Katarincic and RB DJ Oliver were no longer with the program. However, with today being the first day the portal has opened back up since then, Katarincic is now officially in the portal. I would expect Oliver to be in there shortly.
7:00am ET on 03/27/2024 – Defensive lineman Zeiqui Lawton and linebacker Tirek Austin-Cave are no longer with the program. That’s two more players down on the scholarship, bringing the total number down to 88.
2:30pm ET on 02/20/2024 – Joseph’s teammate, Garnett Hollis Jr., has also committed to WVU after entering the portal earlier this month. He played cornerback at Northwestern and has two years to play one season.
6:00am ET on 02/20/2024 – West Virginia received a commitment from Northwestern University transfer defensive back Jaheem Joseph on Monday afternoon. The Mountaineers were still in search of more defensive backs to add to the program, and Joseph entered earlier in the month as a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility remaining.
6:00am ET on 02/02/2024 – Updating ahead of the dead period, which begins after this weekend. All transfer commits are now enrolled since our last update, and we shared the news on quarterback commit Khalil Wilkins, who hit some red tape in regards to the NCAA Clearinghouse. He’s still awaiting approval, but may not enroll until May, rather than the previously planned January arrival. Also, we broke the news last night that running back DJ Oliver and offensive lineman Charlie Katarincic are no longer with the program.
5:00pm ET on 01/12/2024 – Another transfer verbal commitment has decommitted from West Virginia. Josh Minkins, who pledged to WVU and his former coach, ShaDon Brown, for his final season, has announced that he will not be going to WVU. Other changes in this update, is that all other transfer commitments, with the exception of offensive lineman Xavier Bausley, have now enrolled in school. Six high school scholarship players have also enrolled.
8:00am ET on 01/10/2024 – Roughly 24 hours after announcing his commitment to West Virginia, Old Dominion safety transfer Tahj Ra-El announced that he was decommitting from the Mountaineers. He’ll be removed from the scholarship list.
6:00pm ET on 01/08/2024 – West Virginia picked up a commitment from safety transfer Tahj Ra-El out of Old Dominion earlier today. Add him to Jacksonville State offensive line transfer Xavier Bausley, and the Mountaineers are now all the way up to 92 scholarships set for the fall at the moment. Not only that, but WVU also received positive news in the form of Country Roads Trust commitments for defensive lineman Sean Martin and safety Aubrey Burks.
8:00pm ET on 01/05/2024 – Troy University defensive lineman TJ Jackson has verbally committed to WVU Football. He is a senior that also has a redshirt season available, if necessary.
9:00am ET on 01/02/2024 – Defensive lineman Tomiwa Durojaiye, who just transferred to West Virginia from Kentucky eight months ago has entered the portal once again. The reserve defensive lineman played the fourth most snaps of any player in that room, finishing the season with 23 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
8:00am ET on 01/01/2024 – Jalen Thornton, who was long rumored to be calling it a career and walked on Senior Day with Jared Bartlett, has confirmed that he played his final game at West Virginia University.
7:00am ET on 12/30/2023 – Jared Bartlett went public with his decision to leave the program after playing and contributing for five seasons for the Mountaineers. This was a move the coaching staff has known about for at least a month.
Post-Signing Day – 1:45pm on 12/20/2023 – West Virginia has not only signed all nineteen of their verbal commitments, but added three more signatures on Signing Day – wide receiver DayDay Farmer, running back Traevon Dunbar, and wide receiver Dominick Collins.
9:15pm ET on 12/19/2023 – Ohio State linebacker Reid Carrico is now public with his decision. He took two visits to Morgantown on back-to-back weekends, pledging to the coaching staff over the weekend. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
10:00pm ET on 12/18/2023 – Two more transfer commitments for WVU this evening as Colorado State defensive back TJ Crandall and Gardner-Webb edge rusher Ty French both pledged to the Mountaineers. Also, for the sake of this exercise, I’m going to move Bray to just a verbal commitment until an official word comes from WVU (although I know he’s signed, he has not been announced).
1:30pm ET on 12/18/2023 – Oklahoma State wide receiver Jaden Bray has not only committed to WVU, but has signed financial aid paperwork with the University. He has two years of eligibility remaining.
7:55 pm ET on 12/17/2023 – We’re updating with three commitments over the last couple days. Two of them are transfer additions (Ayden Garnes and Josh Minkins), while one is an offensive lineman out of high school (Luas Austin). That puts WVU back to the max, although at least two players included in the 85 number (Jared Bartlett and Jalen Thornton) walked on Senior Day.
7:00pm ET on 12/11/2023 – Running back Justin Johnson and spear Lance Dixon are officially in the portal. This does not change the numbers, as Johnson announced already that he was leaving, and Dixon has not been with the team since the Houston game. Cobb is now the only player announced, but not yet officially in the portal.
11:30am ET on 12/11/2023 – Safety Keyshawn Cobb, who got injured in the second game of the season and missed the rest of the year, announced that he would be entering the NCAA Transfer Portal.
2:30pm ET on 12/10/2023 – Reserve running back Justin Johnson announces that he will enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. He is not yet in the database, but this move was expected, especially after 1) he fell down the depth chart and 2) the Mountaineers began recruiting another high school running back.
9:45am ET on 12/09/2023 – True freshman edge rusher James Heard has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. According to PFF, he played two snaps on defense this past season.
2:15pm ET on 12/08/2023 – Starting defensive tackle Mike Lockhart has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. He is joined by backup kicker Danny King.
12:40pm ET on 12/07/2023 – Cornerback Andrew Wilson-Lamp and spear Hershey McLaurin both announced that they would be entering the NCAA Transfer Portal earlier this morning. A short time later, they officially showed up in the database.
10:50am ET on 12/04/2023 – The first scholarship player to have not previously announced his departure from the program is in the portal. Wide receiver Ja’Shaun Poke is officially in the NCAA Transfer Portal, a source tells EerSports. He played in one game this season, catching two passes for 11 yards.
10:40am ET on 12/04/2023 – Theo Grabill, a walk-on tight end, has entered his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. He’s the first new name of the day. It does not change our numbers from above as those are dealing strictly with scholarship players.
10:15 am ET on 12/04/2023 – Davis Mallinger and Christion Stokes are officially in the portal. Like below, this does not change anything with numbers, just makes official what we already knew.
9:30am ET on 12/04/2023 – Jeremiah Aaron is officially in the portal. Does not change anything with our numbers as we were first to report he left the team two months ago. However, he’s now officially in the portal. Expect the others (Stokes, Braham, Dixon, Mallinger) to join him later today. It all depends on when they got their paperwork in.
8:00am ET on 12/01/2023 – On Thursday evening, safety Christion Stokes, who appeared in four total games over two seasons, announced that he would be entering the transfer portal.
7:00pm ET on 11/28/2023 – Updating to remove Jay’Quan Bostic. As our VIP members found out the night before, the coaching staff and a couple players are doing some mutual parting of ways. We’ve also officially moved Zach Frazier to the “going early to the NFL” section, lowering the scholarship number another.
6:00am ET on 11/15/2023 — Updating the scholarship tracker as we’ve removed two more players from the team (although they are not ‘self-redshirts’ like the previous ones). Linebacker-turned-safety Lance Dixon and safety-turned-wide receiver Davis Mallinger are no longer with the team. Dixon has not been part of the team since the Houston game, while Mallinger and WVU parted ways last week, sources tell EerSports. The transfer portal is not open, so neither are technically in the portal at this time. We’ve also updated to reflect the fact that WVU and high school commit KJ Flowe have parted ways.
6:00AM ET on 10/5/2023 — This is the first update and the original creation of this tracker. It’s a bye week, and we also learned of our first two transfers out of the program – wide receivers Cortez Braham and Jeremiah Aaron have elected to “self-redshirt” and are no longer with the program. That brings WVU’s total projected scholarship number to 95 for 2024. Of course, it will not be there, as players are expected to transfer in the offseason, and there may even be a few players who elect to enter the NFL Draft or simply call it a career. There is zero reason to be concerned. Over the limit is a very good place to be right now.
SCHOLARSHIP TRANSFERS OUT: (* means announced/self-redshirting, but not yet officially in)
WALK-ON TRANSFERS OUT:
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Garrett Greene (Sr.), Nicco Marchiol (r-So.)
Incoming Recruits: Khalil Wilkins (Fr.)
Transfers In: Ryder Burton (r-Fr.)
Transfers Out: Sean Boyle
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 4
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Jaylen Anderson (r-Jr.), CJ Donaldson (Jr.), Jahiem White (So.)
Incoming Recruits: Diore Hubbard (Fr.), Traevon Dunbar (Fr.)
Transfers Out: Justin Johnson, DJ Oliver
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 5
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Preston Fox (r-Jr.), Jarel Williams (r-So.), Hudson Clement (r-So.), Rodney Gallagher (So.), Traylon Ray (So.)
Incoming Recruits: Brandon Rehmann (Fr.), Keyshawn Robinson (Fr.), DayDay Farmer (Fr.), Dominick Collins (Fr.)
Transfers In: Jaden Bray (r-Jr.), Justin Robinson (Sr.)
Transfers Out: Jeremiah Aaron, Cortez Braham, Davis Mallinger, Ja’Shaun Poke, EJ Horton, Graeson Malashevich
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 11
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Kole Taylor (Sr.), Treylan Davis (r-Jr..), Will Dixon (r-So.), Tory Johnson Jr. (r-Fr.), Noah Braham (r-Fr.)
Incoming Recruits: Gregory Genross (r-Jr.), Jack Sammarco (Fr.)
Transfers In: None
Transfers Out: None
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: Victor Wikstrom
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 7
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Wyatt Milum (Sr.), Brandon Yates (r-Sr.), Ja’Quay Hubbard (r-Sr.), Nick Malone (r-Sr.), Tomas Rimac (r-Jo.), Sullivan Weidman (r-So.), Landen Livingston (r-So.), Maurice Hamilton (r-So.), Johnny Williams (r-Fr.), Cooper Young (r-Fr.), Nick Krahe (r-Fr.)
Incoming Recruits: Kyle Altuner (Fr.), Justin Terry (Fr.), Lucas Austin (Fr.)
Transfers In: Xavier Bausley
Transfers Out: Charlie Katarincic
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: Zach Frazier
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 15
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Fatorma Mulbah (r-Sr.), Sean Martin (Sr.), Edward Vesterinen (Sr.), Taurus Simmons (Sr.), Hammond Russell (r-Jr.), Asani Redwood (r-So.), Corey McIntyre Jr. (r-Fr.), Oryend Fisher (r-Fr.), Zachariah Keith (r-Fr.)
Incoming Recruits: Makai Byerson (Fr.), Elijah Kinsler (Fr.), Nate Gabriel (Fr.)
Transfers In: TJ Jackson
Transfers Out: Mike Lockhart, Tomiwa Durojaiye, Zeiqui Lawton, Brayden Dudley
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: Jalen Thornton
Total current scholarships used for 2024: 13
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Tyrin Bradley (Sr.), Jairo Faverus (r-Jr.), Caden Biser (r-Jr.), Trey Lathan (r-So.), Ben Cutter (So.), Josiah Trotter (r-Fr.)
Incoming Recruits: Obinna Onwuka (Fr.), Rickey Williams (Fr.), Curtis Jones (Fr.)
Transfers In: Ty French (Sr.), Reid Carrico (r-Jr.)
Transfers Out: James Heard, Jared Bartlett, Tirek Austin-Cave
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2023: 11
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Jacolby Spells (Jr.), Jordan Jackson (r-Fr.),
Incoming Recruits: Keyon Washington (Fr.), Chris Henry (Fr.)
Transfers In: Garnett Hollis (Sr.), Dontez Fagan (Sr.), Kekour Tarnue (Sr.), Ayden Garnes (r-Jr.), TJ Crandall (So.)
Transfers Out: Andrew Wilson-Lamp, Montre Miller
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2023: 9
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Anthony Wilson (r-Sr.), Aubrey Burks (Sr.), Raleigh Collins (r-So.), Aden Tagaloa-Nelson (r-Fr.), Josiah Jackson (r-Fr.)
Incoming Recruits: Jason Cross (Fr.), Jacob Boyce (Fr.), Zae Jennings (Fr.)
Transfers In: Jaheem Joseph
Transfers Out: Lance Dixon, Christion Stokes, Hershey McLaurin, Keyshawn Cobb
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2023: 9
Current Scholarship Players Returning: Michael Hayes (r-Sr.), Austin Brinkman (Sr.), Oliver Straw (Jr.)
Incoming Recruits: None
Transfers In: None
Transfers Out: None
Declaring early for the NFL or retiring: None
Total current scholarships used for 2023: 3
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