West Virginia Football: Top 5 recruiting targets for 2019 National Signing Day
By Phil Poling
No. 1: Darnell Wright, Offensive Tackle
While Neal Brown intends to corral West Virginia’s top players on the recruiting trail, landing the best player in the state – in his first few weeks on the job, I might add – would be an excellent step in that direction. The player he’s after? Huntington offensive tackle Darnell Wright.
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Wright, the state’s only 5-star prospect this recruiting cycle, is a 6-foot-6, 320 lb. tackle with offers from seemingly every team who had one to give, including Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, and LSU. While Tennessee looks to be the favorite to land Wright, Brown and the Mountaineers will undoubtedly do everything they can to keep him home.
A handful of West Virginians produced at a high level in 2018, including Derrek Pitts, brothers Dante and Darius Stills, Dylan Tonkery, and Trevon Wesco. And while many fanbases enjoy when a “hometown” kid plays well, things are a bit different in Morgantown. Being the only football team in the state (yeah, I said it), everybody gets behind a West Virginian playing for West Virginia. There’s just a different type of excitment when it comes to rooting for in-state players.
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If Wright were to choose the Mountaineers, he’d be the second-highest rated recruit to ever commit to West Virginia, per 247Sports, behind only Noel Devine. He’d also be the highest-rated West Virginian to commit to the ‘Eers as well, beating out Martinsburg’s Brandon Barrett from the 2004 recruiting class.