MORGANTOWN — In the first season of Rich Rodriguez version 2.0, West Virginia has a great deal of rebuilding to do basically all across the board, and that certainly is true at the wide receiver position.
The Mountaineers return nine receivers from 2024, but just one of those caught more than two passes last season.
Two of last year’s receivers — Justin Robinson (16 catches for 244 yards and three touchdowns) and Preston Fox (12 catches for 131 yards) — are not returning to college, while three others are headed to other power-conference programs.
Hudson Clement (51 catches for 741 yards and five TDs) is transferring to Illinois, Traylon Ray (28 catches for 426 yards and four touchdowns) is going to Mississippi and Dayday Farmer (six catches for 54 yards) is transferring to UCF.
Only Rodney Gallagher (5-foot-10, 178 pounds, junior) returns to WVU from those who hauled in more than two receptions for the Mountaineers last year.
A native of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, Gallagher caught 26 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns in ’24.
The slot receiver also ran the ball 16 times for 51 yards, mainly on jet sweeps.
In addition, Gallagher saw action for the first several games in 2024 as a two-way player, also getting duty at defensive back in certain situations, though he concentrated solely on offense, with a couple of punt returns also thrown in, in the final two-thirds of the season.
Jaden Bray (6-2, 205, senior) saw regular action at wide receiver for West Virginia through the first five games of the ’24 campaign, but an injury kept him off the field for the final eight outings in WVU’s 6-7 season.
A transfer from Oklahoma State, Bray caught 48 passes for 686 yards in his three seasons for the Cowboys — one of which was a redshirt — but his injury last year limited him to just two catches for 88 total yards with the Mountaineers.
A native of Saraland, Alabama, Jarel Williams (6-2, 205, junior) has seen a great deal of game action in his three previous seasons at West Virginia, though a majority of that has come on special teams.
After playing one game as a true freshman and redshirting in 2022, he played in all 13 games in both 2023 and 2024 with most of that coming on special teams.
His only career catch in college came last year in the Frisco Bowl, when he hauled in a 17-yard reception against Memphis.
Like Williams, C.J. Cole (6-4, 206, senior) also has plenty of game experience in his career (37 games), though his time has been mainly on special teams as well.
He did catch two passes in 2023 but didn’t record a reception last season, though he saw action in every game on special teams.
After Gallagher, Bray, Williams and Cole, WVU does return a number of promising young receivers who were with the Mountaineers last year, but all of them have limited game experience.
T.J. Johnson (6-3, 223 pounds, sophomore) started his West Virginia career at tight end but moved to receiver.
He saw action in two games on special teams in ’24.
Brandon Rehmann (6-0, 190, redshirt freshman) and Dom Collins (5-9, 188, redshirt freshman) each garnered a great deal of praise from then-Mountaineer coach Neal Brown and his staff as true freshmen last year, but both ultimately redshirted.
Two walk-on receivers, Mykel Davis (6-2, 180, redshirt freshman) and Andrew Phares (5-9, 158, redshirt freshman), each also redshirted last season.
With limited experience returning at receiver from last year’s squad, the Mountaineers will have to rely a great deal on newcomers at that position to get to the quality depth of at least seven or eight that every college coach desires.
Two true freshmen receivers — Tyshawn Dues (5-10, 175) and Jalil Hall (6-0, 170) — joined West Virginia as part of its signing class of 2025, though neither is slated to enroll at WVU until the summer.
Dues, who was also a strong defensive back at Hurricane High School, hauled in 118 passes for 2,251 yards over the past three seasons.
Hall, also a two-way player Monsignor Bonner (Pennsylvania) High School, finished his prep career with more than 1,500 receiving yards, setting a school record in the process.
Dues and Hall will likely get plenty of practice reps once they arrive at WVU to show if they can contribute as true freshmen, but to make sure they have plenty of receiver options, Rodriguez and his staff have also mined the transfer portal for five additions — so far — adding them to the Mountaineer receiving room.
Rodriguez knows two of those transfers well, as Cam Vaughn (6-2, 190, sophomore) and Jarod Bowie (5-9, 160, senior) are following WVU’s new coach from his former school, Jacksonville State.
A native of Martinsburg, Bowie was the state high school player of the year for the Bulldogs before moving on to Concord University, where he was a first-team Division II All-American in 2022, catching 102 passes for 1,773 yards and 18 touchdowns.
After being named the Mountain East Conference Offensive Player of the Year, he transferred to Jacksonville State, though he appeared in just three games for the Gamecocks in his first season there in 2023.
He saw action in all 14 games for Jacksonville State this past season, catching 13 passes for 207 yards and also rushing the ball three times for 24 yards.
Vaughn was the leading receiver for Jacksonville State last season as a redshirt freshman, hauling in 48 passes for 803 yards with five TDs.
A highly productive quarterback while at Temple (Georgia) High School, Vaughn moved to receiver as a true freshman at Jacksonville State in 2023, though he redshirted that year, enabling him time to learn the new position.
His strong transition was evident as a redshirt freshman.
Besides Vaughn and Bowie, West Virginia has also added three other transfer receivers in Daveon Walker (6-2, 180, junior), Oran Singleton (5-9, 165, senior) and Cyrus Traugh (6-0, 180, sophomore).
A native of Warner Robins, Georgia, where he helped his high school win four straight state championships, Walker was rated as a top-100 receiver prospect nationally in the class of 2022.
He signed with Vanderbilt coming out of Warner Robins High School, but saw action in just one game during his two seasons with the Commodores and left to spend 2024 at Butler (Kansas) Community College, where he had 19 catches for 331 yards last fall for the 7-4 Grizzlies.
Singleton began his college career at Akron after earning all-state honors at Clewiston (Florida) High School.
He played in nine games for the Zips as a true freshman, catching 11 passes for 112 yards. In 2022, he enrolled at Hutchinson (Kansas) Community College, where he led the team in receptions with 31 for 319 yards and seven touchdowns.
Singleton eventually landed at Eastern Michigan in time for the 2024 season and immediately had a significant impact in a variety of areas.
He had a team-high 64 catches for 639 yards and two touchdowns for the Eagles last fall, as well as returning 16 punts for 43 yards and rushing the ball six times for 23 yards.
West Virginia high school fans are familiar with Traugh, as he was a first-team all-state honoree in both football and basketball at Parkersburg South.
The winner of the Randy Moss Award in 2022, presented to the state’s top prep receiver, Traugh had 84 catches for 1,200 yards as a senior for the Patriots and signed with Youngstown State.
He redshirted as a true freshman in 2023 and then saw action in all 12 games for the Penguins in 2024, catching at least one pass in each.
He finished the season with 36 total receptions for 409 yards and five TDs. He also returned 12 punts for 37 yards.
