West Virginia head coach Rich Rodriguez wants to have three guys ready to roll in his backfield by the time that the season rolls around.
Junior Jahiem White will certainly fill one of those roles as the most productive returning piece on the offensive side of the ball after rushing for 845 yards and 7 touchdowns last season. While White is dealing with a minor knee issue in the spring, the Mountaineers are excited for his potential.
“Jahiem is a proven guy and I think he’s going to have a great year. He has a great skill set for what we do, too,” Rodriguez said. “So excited about him.”
But with CJ Donaldson exiting the program to transfer to Ohio State in the off-season, there are plenty of questions behind White in the backfield pecking order.
The Mountaineers were aggressive in the transfer portal, landing a pair of options in Northern Iowa transfer Tye Edwards and Catawba College transfer LJ Turner.
Edwards spent the past two seasons with the Panthers where he rushed for 1,557 yards and 11 touchdowns. That included this past season where Edwards rushed for 1,022 yards and 6 scores while catching 12 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown.
At 6-foot-2, 237-pounds, Edwards provides a big-back option to fill the role that Donaldson held in the backfield a season ago. Edwards collected a total of 1,233 yards after contact for an average of 4.39 yards after contact per attempt. But he also was elusive, forcing a total of 71 forced missed tackles across 267 carries.
“Have a big guy in Tye Edwards,” Rodriguez said.
Turner is another productive back after rushing for 1,961 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns in three seasons with the Indians. But his 2024 campaign was his most impressive to date with 1,224 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns earning him Division II all-American honors.
The 5-foot-9, 189-pounder, eclipsed 1,200 yards in just eight total games and had a game where he rushed for 329 yards and 5 touchdowns.
Behind the transfers, the Mountaineers have some in-house options that return such as redshirt freshmen Diore Hubbard and Trae’von Dunbar. The pair only combined for one rushing yard in 2024, but both are now a year older and should be in a better position to compete.
“Hubbard is going to be a good player,” Rodriguez said.
The head coach believes that the Mountaineers have some talent in the room, but the spring is going to go a long way toward determining what the next steps will be at the position.
“I think there’s some talent there, but we might need to bring another guy in here as well,” he said.
