Did Bryce Ford-Wheaton Help Convince Devin Carter to Join Mountaineers?

Did a former Mountaineer offer West Virginia an assist in helping to add new Mountaineer to the football team?

Well, based on some tweets by Bryce Ford-Wheaton, it certainly seemed as if he may have had something to do with helping to convince Devin Carter to eventually choose to transfer to WVU to finish his college legibility. The North Carolina State transfer flipped from Penn State to WVU earlier in the week.

Due to this situation, WVSN decided to reach out to Ford-Wheaton, who is preparing for the East-West Shrine Bowl after forgoing what could have been one more year in Morgantown to declare for the NFL Draft, to get to the bottom of this story.

Before diving into what kind of influence Ford-Wheaton may have had, we asked WVU’s most recent WR1 how he knows his potential replacement. Is it just that they are both from nearby towns North Carolina or did they form a stronger bond somehow?

“We grew up playing in the same area so you just naturally become friends from that and we crossed paths a lot. We really became close when we played in our Shrine Bowl game senior year of high school,” said Ford-Wheaton about their personal connection that’s lasted years.

The former Mountaineer turned NFL Draft prospect even mentioned that he knew of Carter being he even knew him on any kind of personal level.

“I’ve known him well for a little over 6 years but known of him since probably like 2016. I remember he got offers a couple months before me,” said Ford-Wheaton.

This is why Ford-Wheaton was so excited at the idea of Carter playing in front of the same West Virginia fans he experienced, tweeting “do y’all thing” when he noticed WVU extended an offer to his friend. This was almost instantly after Carter made it known, that unlike Ford-Wheaton, he was going to play one more year of college football and transfer.

Do y’all thing 😏 https://t.co/cMJfN74xWc

— Bryce Ford-Wheaton (@Brycewheat3) December 14, 2022

Despite Ford-Wheaton admitting he was in constant communication with his friend and tried to sell him on WVU, Carter ended up committing to Penn State. Fast forward less than ten days and Carter has flipped to West Virginia. So does Ford-Wheaton know what happened between Carter picking the Nittany Lions and now deciding to change his mind and become a Mountaineer after all?

On if he was still providing Carter with a WVU sales pitch even after he committed to move to State College, Pennsylvania?

“I talked to him like a day before he committed to PSU and then I kinda left it alone. I didn’t have much to do with flipping him honestly. It wasn’t until yesterday when he called me and wanted to talk more about WVU that I kinda knew he was gonna end up committing here,” admitted Ford-Wheaton as he deflected taking credit for helping to cause the flip of Carter.

Besides what he heard about West Virginia and the football program, like say from his longtime friend who lived everything WVU has to offer, it’s possible Carter just simply saw a major opportunity with the Mountaineers. WVU’s situation at receiver may make fans nervous, but may also lure in hungry players, ironically enough.

In addition to Ford-Wheaton, WVU has also lost Sam James to the NFL Draft and watched Kaden Prather and Reese Smith transfer out of the program. This created an obvious void at the position for the Mountaineers, especially in terms of experienced playmakers.

“I just told him the truth that there’s over 150 balls caught that left the room and him being an experienced player he knew this was probably the best choice for him. I’m not gonna take credit for getting him to commit though. Neal (head coach Neal Brown) and Bilal (WR coach Bilal Marshall) did a good job. I feel like if anything I just threw them the alley-oop,” he said about what more he expressed to Carter about joining West Virginia.

WVU did bring in quality receiver recruits as part of their 2023 class like Rodney Gallagher and Traylon Ray. They also gained another commitment from a transferring receiver and sent a slew of other offers to continue to fill the position.

It’s possible Carter just changed his mind on his own after giving it more thought. It’s possible his old friend was in his ear the whole time. It’s both everything happened simultaneously to work together in landing Carter. Either way, the former North Carolina State star is now a Mountaineer and it’s nice for the WVU program that one of their own thanks so highly of time wearing the Old Gold and Blue to be able to intentionally or inadvertently sell it to another player.

The only unfortunate part of this story for WVU fans is that they won’t be able to see Bryce Ford-Wheaton and Devin Carter share the field and wear the West Virginia uniform at the same time.

Carter caught 25 passes for 406 yards and two touchdowns in 2022. Despite having spent five years with the Wolfpack, Carter still has eligibility thanks to the COVID season and barely playing in 2018.