Aug 11, 2024 By Bob Hertzel 7 min read

MORGANTOWN — Let’s talk about a couple of young skill position football players who figure heavily into West Virginia’s future plans but might play a big role this year — wide receivers Rodney Gallagher, a sophomore and Laurel Highlands graduate, and freshman DayDay Farmer, both of whom were singled out by Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown in his Wednesday media update.

Gallagher, of course, was a top recruit last year who saw playing time and whose role will be expanded this season, not only as a receiver but also filling in as a defensive back while he prepares himself to become the team’s future punt and maybe kickoff returner.

“Returning-wise, he’s probably another year away from that if we stay healthy,” Brown said, who believes wide receiver Preston Fox is “elite” in that role and might have a future doing it in the NFL. “Rodney’s definitely our second guy back there at the punt return. I’m really proud of how he’s matured and improved and taken on that responsibility.

“The first four days of practice we didn’t do a whole lot with him on defense. This week, we’ve amped it up and fully expect him to play snaps on both sides of the ball.”

The other youngster to watch is DayDay Farmer, a freshman.

“He’s elite with the ball in his hands, so we got to figure out ways to use him,” Brown said. “Hes a guy that looks thin, but he plays really strong. (Strength coach Mike Joseph) was really impressed this summer.”

Farmer is currently weighing around 165 pounds.

“He’ll probably play around 170 but he’s got twitch and he’s got some explosiveness and he’s a lot stronger than maybe his body type looks, which will give him the ability to play. He’s made several competitive plays. I’m excited about him. He’s going to earn some playing time if he continues this.”.

Farmer flipped his recruitment to WVU from Central Florida on signing day and also drew big time interest from the likes of Arizona State, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Miami, Michigan State, Missouri, Penn State, Pitt, Texas A&M and Virginia.

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While it is beginning to look like undrafted free agent Beanie Bishop of West Virginia might win a starting spot at cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the more widely heralded Zach Frazier of WVU, the Steelers’ second-round selection, may be eased into the lineup a bit more slowly, keeping with their tradition of not rushing top talents such as Joey Porter.

With a veteran offensive lineman, Nate Herbig, adjusting to the position, it allows Frazier a chance to move in slowly, perhaps by midseason. It will be recalled that at WVU Frazier started his freshman season at the school playing guard, not center.

Make no doubt, if he could, Brown would be glad to take Frazier back, but understands that is not the way things work.

“I miss him a lot. He changed our program,” Brown admitted, talking about Frazier’s reliability and work ethic. “In four years, I never once had the thought ‘Is Zach Frazier ready to go today?’ Never once did I think that.”

In fact, Frazier was so good that Brown admitted, “I would have to create ways to get on him. I miss him because he loved to practice and he loved to compete.

“But, with that being said, he’s out of here now. The challenge now is what does that do to us. How can we do better, because that’s the goal around here with Brandon Yates in there. We are proud of him. He’s continued to get better. I like the guys we got up front. we have more depth.”

Yates moves into the position after playing right guard.

“Yates is doing a really good job of continuing to get better every day,” offensive line coach Matt Moore said. “He’s straining more, learning the center position in pressure situations.”

Moore explained what he meant by that.

“We had a goal line snap about a week ago and he snapped it over the quarterback’s head. I told him, anyone can do that. That’s a learning moment. Anybody can snap against air, but with a 320-pound noseguard on your face it’s different. We have to get those snaps. Yesterday we had a high pressure goal line situation and all four were really good exchanges.”

“When I first started playing center, it was more like 100-level classes, general knowledge-type stuff,” Yates said. “Now, it’s getting into those 300-level classes and looking at the bigger picture, not just looking at the guy in front of me but also looking at the defensive ends and understanding the whole picture.”

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Good things just keep happening for recently named WVU Hall of Fame football star Anthony Becht. The one-time Mountaineer tight end on Thursday was named the radio color broadcaster for the New York Jets, where he played most of his 11-year NFL career.

Becht, tight end under Don Nehlen, is currently the coach of the St. Louis BattleHawks of the UFL.

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Neal Brown was asked during his Wednesday press conference if, perhaps, he might not have liked to have Penn State scheduled as something other than the season-opening game, maybe giving himself a chance to work out the kinks against a lesser opponent.

“It is what it is at this point,” he replied. “I think it is a great showcase game. If you ask any coach, he’d like to ease into it. We’ve played a couple of FCS first games and those are positive. You learn a little bit about your team before you play a rivalry game.

“But that’s not what we have, so it is what it is,” he continued. “We play Penn State. They are a Top 10 tea in the country. I went over this with our team the other day. We looked at the NFL draft boards and there’s a whole lot of Penn State guys listead.

“We’re on Fox; we’re kickoff off about 12:07 or 12:08 and we better be ready. It doesn’t matter what I’d like it to be. The Fox crew will be here and we’ve got to perform. The expectation is we will perform at a high level.”

Most agree WVU plays one of the most challenging schedules in the Big 12 with two non-conference rivalry games against Penn State and Pitt, the Panthers on the road, but Brown is not complaining.

“The schedule’s strength is to be determined,” he said earlier in camp. “Everybody’s whining about our schedule last year at this time, but In hindsight, if you remember, we opened with Penn State, a Top 10-team,. We played Pitt, who was on a lot of people’s preseason Top 25 and then Texas Tech came here and they were Top 25. And so, the schedule’s strength is to be determined.

“On paper, it was really hard, right? And our league is extremely deep. I will say this about our schedule. I like our bye weeks. The travel? We have two really long trips to Lubbock and Tucson.

“But the Lubbock trip is the last game of the year and we have a bye after the Arizona State game, so we’re protected a little bit on that. That helps. So I don’t know about the strength of the schedule. We just have to take it one at a time, but there’s some really good teams on there.”