Excitement surrounds this year’s West Virginia football team, with expectations high following last season’s 9-4 finish.
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The past two years haven’t quite been a walk in the park for WVU athletic director Wren Baker.
Edge rusher Zachariah Keith, who twice committed to Georgia Tech earlier in the recruiting process, has now pledged to West Virginia.
A sizeable edge rusher (6-5, 250 lbs.) from Douglasville, Georgia, visited the WVU campus this weekend, and had announced that he would make a final decision on Dec. 21, which is the start of the early signing period. However, his trip to West Virginia apparently was enough to change that plan. He had also scheduled visits to Memphis and Buffalo.
His decommitment from Georgia Tech was spurred by a change in head coaches in the Yellow Jacket program, and butressed by West Virginia's continued interest.
A rusher with a great deal of length and an excellent reach, Keith eats up ground on outside rushes with a long stride, and has the size to brush aside blockers who don't get squared up on him. He can play out of either a three- or a four-point stance, and lined up both inside and on the edge for Douglas County.
He showed very good pursuit skills for a defender his size, and pursues from sideline to sideline with determination. He keeps his head up and eyes on the ball when engaging blockers, and doesn't fall for fakes or misdirection designed to use his quick reactions against him.
Keith could be a defensive end or a bandit for WVU, depending on how he grows and physically matures over his career, but it's easy to see his aggressiveness and rushing skills can be initially used off the edge in the Mountaineer defense. He had 76 tackles, four sacks and seven TFLs as a junior for Douglas County High School.
Keith is the 20th commitment in the Mountaineer class, and is rated as a four-start player by On3,com, although that service notes that is consensus national rating works out at the three-star level. On3 rates him as the No. 25 edge rusher in the country. His commitment boosts WVU to 34th in the current national recruiting rankings.
Keith had offers from Power 5 programs Boston College, Maryland, Michigan State, Mississippi State, Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Georgia Tech, and numerous Group of 5 stalwarts, including Coastal Carolina, Liberty, Memphis, South Alabama, Temple, UCF and Western Kentucky. Tennessee State and Marshall were also in with offers.
