Charles Woods Opens Up About Decision to Leave West Virginia, Finish College Career Elsewhere

After letting the dust settle on the backlash from revealing his decision to transfer an hour before kickoff of a game, cornerback Charles Woods has now decided to further articulate his reasons for leaving West Virginia.

Woods details weighing his options over the past few months while dealing with a surgery and then returning for couple games, but now feeling it’s in the best interest of his mental health to have a fresh start somewhere else for his final year of eligibility.

“I want to thank you for welcoming a Dallas kid in. Believe it or not, most kids where I’m from don’t make it to my age and to be able to be playing college football is a blessing,” Woods then goes onto say about his time at WVU.

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— ٩ (@c_woods9) November 20, 2022

After complimenting the WVU fan base for its every and passion, Woods then goes into his injury plagued season and how it led him to this point and needing to leave. “Unfortunately, I was sidelined this year with a significant injury and honestly was never supposed to play this season after that play,” says Woods.

He then thanks his doctors, but closes his statement with perhaps the most interesting part and possibly a response to head coach Neal Brown accusing Woods of “shutting it down” and being hard to reach for weeks during his postgame press conference following the loss to Kansas State. “My teammates, my brothers, I wish I was allowed to finish the season with ya’ll but some things are out of my control,” Woods writes.

WVU HC Neal Brown Fires ‘He Shut it Down’ Shot at Departing CB Charles Woods

This could also be simply referring to the fact that the eligibility rules would not allow him to play the final two games this season and preserve this year. In other words, failing to play in four games due to injury is allowing Woods to play one more college season next year, which could’ve been back at WVU or for another school.

“I will be graduating this semester and attending another university for my last year of eligibility,” Woods closes his message before signing off with his traditional “much love” at the end.

While this statement clears some aspects up, the angst from Brown, which was different than the positive comments the coaching staff had always said about Woods, remains something to wonder about. Either way, none of that matters now. Woods’ career as a Mountaineer is over and it’s now up to the program to regroup for the future with whoever is on the roster when they kickoff the 2023 season.