Charlie Katarincic on His Commitment to WVU: ‘It Was Tough to Say No’

So much of recruiting nowadays is centered around how many scholarships offers a prospect has and who those offers are from. The more offers a kid has, logic would say the better prospect he is. If more of those offers are from power five schools, even better.

It was for that very reason that when West Virginia was the first program to offer 2022 offensive lineman Charlie Katarincic back in January, he took it to heart.

“It was super important that they were the first,” Katarincic told WVSN over the weekend. “So much [of recruiting] is your previous offers. It just makes me know these guys believe in me.”

Katarincic (6-foot-5, 280 pounds) is originally from Fox Chapel, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh and he plays high school football at Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut. He is currently unranked as a prospect by both 247Sports and rivals, but that does not matter much anymore as Katarincic wrapped up his recruitment by verbally committed to WVU last week.

Almost Heaven 🏔 … #TAKEMEHOME22 pic.twitter.com/v1Eti5dHiA

— Charlie Katarincic (@Big_Kat_77) March 18, 2021

Since WVU offered him at the beginning of the year, Katarincic has picked up more offers from other schools — Dartmouth, UPenn, Colombia and East Carolina — but he said being offered by West Virginia first was hard to say no to.

“From day one when they offered me, it was going to be tough to say no to,” Katarincic said.

WVU offensive line coach Matt Moore was the one who recruited Katarincic, who has played both guard and tackle in high school. Katarincic said Moore likes his base and ability to move combined with his size. Since offering him, Moore kept in touch with Katarincic, calling him “about once a week”.

Being from western Pennsylvania, Katarincic said he was familiar with WVU and its fan base, but was eager to learn more before he committed. The NCAA is still barring any official in-person recruiting visits, but Katarincic still wanted to see the place for himself. After taking a virtual visit to get a look at the facilities and the campus, Katarincic and his parents made their own trip to Morgantown last Wednesday.

“We drove down on Wednesday, just to walk around,” Katarincic said. “We really liked the atmosphere. It’s true that they say since there’s no pro sports, [WVU] kind of is the pro sports team. You could see everybody rallies around them.”

Katarincic has an official visit scheduled to WVU in June, but he said wrapping up his recruitment early is going to take a lot of weight off his mind over the next year.

“It takes the worry away during my senior year,” Katarincic said. “I can focus on becoming a better player versus needing [to perform well] for recruiting.”

As an early commit in the 2022 class, Katarincic said he now also becomes a bit of a cheerleader or a student recruiter for WVU as the Mountaineers target other prospects in the 2022 class.

Offical visit to Almost Heaven locked in! Can’t wait! #HailWV @CoachMooreWVU pic.twitter.com/FSZdtMQ2xz

— Charlie Katarincic (@Big_Kat_77) March 16, 2021

Katarincic is WVU’s second commit in the 2022 class. He joins Spring Valley tight end Corbin Page.