MORGANTOWN — One of West Virginia University’s most highly anticipated recruiting classes reported to school this week as the second semester of summer school started with only three absentees.
Among those not yet on hand, but expected soon, were two highly touted prospects — defensive lineman Tevita Finau and wide receiver Deon Long.
Finau’s journey to WVU has been a long one, having signed three letters of intent only to have problems getting through junior college requirements. According to a release put out by coach Bill Stewart, Finau has completed his class work and is waiting for his grades to be posted and to be accepted into WVU.
Finau’s talent is such that even though he has yet to even qualify to play at WVU, he has already been picked as a second-team All-Big East defensive lineman. The native Hawaiian was coached by former Mountaineer Dale Wolfley as a freshman at Phoenix College and was considered one of the top junior college players in the country.
He selected West Virginia over an impressive list of suitors that included Auburn, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisville, Oklahoma, USC, Tennessee and Oregon.
Long played at Dunbar High in Washington, D.C., where he caught 35 passes for 840 yards and nine touchdowns as a senior. He is still awaiting his test scores.
The other recruit who has yet to be cleared is a raw, talented 6-foot, 6-inch, 270-pound defensive end from Mercersburg (Pa.) Academy, Curtis Feigt. A native of Germany, he is awaiting his student visa.
In all, 14 recruits did report, including invited walk-on Tyler Anderson from Morgantown High.
They will join a group of eight recruits who reported with the first summer session.
In that group, getting an early start, are the two most highly touted freshmen, quarterback Eugene Smith from Miramar, Fla., who is expected to redshirt in preparation for replacing Jarrett Brown after he plays his senior season; and running back Tavon Austin, who is expected to compete for playing time this year and challenge to return punts and kickoffs.
The players will begin attending classes and going through summer voluntary workouts.
The recruit who did not make it was wide receiver Terrance Moore, a junior college player who did not qualify academically.
Camp opens on Aug. 7 and the season begins on Sept. 5 with a home game against Liberty.
E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.
QB Smith breaks bone in foot
MORGANTOWN (AP) — A West Virginia football spokesman says incoming freshman quarterback Eugene Smith has a broken bone in his left foot that will require up to eight weeks to heal.
Mike Montoro said Tuesday that Smith injured his foot late last week in an unspecified, off-the-field incident in Morgantown.
Montoro says Smith must keep weight off his foot for four weeks, when it will be re-evaluated.
The 6-foot-3 Smith reported to school for summer workouts and is expected to compete for a backup role behind starter Jarrett Brown this season. Smith threw for 3,089 yards and 32 touchdowns last year at Miramar (Fla.) High School.
West Virginia players report for preseason camp on Aug. 7.
Bob Herzel
WVU recruiting class reports
- Bob Herzel
-
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Patrone finally gets his due
Lee Patrone says he remembers it vividly, even though more than 50 years have passed, and while it was the greatest accomplishment in his life it has nothing to do with the West Virginia University basketball career that has lifted him into the Class of 2012 that will be inducted into the Mountaineer Sports Hall of Fame in September.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: No doubt WVU made out well
There was a cold, ill wind blowing in from the north on Friday.
It was the kind of wind that blows whenever a Pitt man opens his mouth, as the Pittsburgh athletic director Steve Pederson did. -
Tears and memories: VIDEO
It was mid-Thursday afternoon at the Morgantown Event Center and the crowd stood mostly silently in line that wound out of the Events Hall and into the hallway toward the staircase.
A young lady was there holding a singular golden rose
“I wish,” Rebecca Durst said, “it could be gold and blue.” -
HERTZEL COLUMN: Stew fondly remembered by players
The tributes have poured in all week for Bill Stewart, the former West Virginia University football coach whose sudden and unexpected death from a heart attack at age 59 on Monday stunned the state, but it wasn’t the administrators or executives or politicians who really knew him.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: White right there with Hall of Famers
Back on New Year’s Eve, 2008, shortly after West Virginia University had edged North Carolina, 31-30, to win the Meineke Car Care Bowl, an attempt was made to put Mountaineer quarterback Patrick White into his proper historical perspective.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Pat Beilein follows in father’s path
In a day filled with the sorrow of former West Virginia University football coach Bill Stewart’s sudden and unexpected death, there was a ray of sunshine that managed to slip through, a happening that shows us all that even in death there is life and as one son grieves, as does Stewart’s son, Blaine, somewhere else a father basks in pride over his son.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN - Stewart’s gift was giving
It was the kind of cosmic happening that defies description. We all come across them from time to time, leaving us in a state of disbelief.
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: This ‘Maniac’ makes music with Kilicli
Mike Martin wasn’t long removed from his New York roots, a somewhat rare import in these parts compared to the migration of New Jerseyites who matriculate at West Virginia University.
-
Van Zant fired as WVU baseball coach
West Virginia athletic director Oliver Luck believes with a new coach and a new stadium the Mountaineers can compete with the likes of Texas and Oklahoma for the Big 12 baseball championship but understands it will not come easily or quickly.
-
SEC, Big 12 team up for bowl
Even before the full impact of West Virginia University’s 2014 season-opening meeting with Alabama in Atlanta has been grasped, the opportunity presented itself for the two to meet again later in that season or future ones in a bowl agreement between the Big 12 and SEC that is much like the Rose Bowl agreement between the Big Ten and the Pac-12.
- More Bob Herzel Headlines
-
HERTZEL COLUMN: Patrone finally gets his due
