Wilkins

College football has always been about recruiting and keeping your best players around for four years.

In today’s topsy-turvy world of unrestrained player movement, the landscape has changed dramatically since the emergence of the widely used transfer portal.

Players change schools, looking for more playing time, hoping to find a fountain of dollars from the NIL money available or just because they can.

Your team must keep up or be dogged by losing seasons and fan upheavals.

White

It doesn’t do to just bring in a slew of new faces that can’t play. You must attract players with value.

To be competitive, you must have new faces that have done something at a Power 4 school. Simply bringing in player after player after player won’t be enough.

West Virginia opened its transfer door wide to players from everywhere. Junior College athletes, those from Division II schools, and players from all over who didn’t start at their previous school.

For every new face that ventured in from Oklahoma, Texas A&M or Oregon State, there were three others from Cerritos College, Dodge City Community College, Iowa Central Community College, Hutchinson Community College, Citrus Community College, Trinity Valley Community College or Garden City Community College.

The Division II universities — Shepherd, Slippery Rock, Christopher Newport, Virginia Union and Franklin Pierce — had players leave home and trek on into Morgantown.

Marchiol

Jacksonville State, previous stopover for Coach Rich Rodriguez, had seven players transfer to WVU.

And now injuries — the unforeseen element in any season — have further disrupted any flow to this season.

Quarterback Nicco Marchiol was not only injured, but also announced he will be transferring out of WVU. Receiver Jaden Bray and running back Jahiem White are through for the season because of injuries.

Quarterback Khalil Wilkins was the general, in a long loss to Brigham Young.

Brigham Young quarterback Bear Bachmeier threw for 351 yards against Mountaineer defense.

Bray

West Virginia’s current 2-4 record at least shows a win over reviled Pitt. But there was a loss to Ohio and large-deficit losses to Utah and Kansas.

Some useful players have to be found in the defensive secondary. Remaining on the schedule are unbeaten Texas Tech, one-loss teams in Houston, Arizona State and Texas Christian as well as this week’s opponent Central Florida, now at 3-2.

The lone opponent with a losing record is Coach Prime’s Colorado Buffaloes.

Injuries can be decimating. But getting little or nothing from the huge influx of players from the transfer portal can be even worse.