Neal Brown Talks About Individual 2022 Signees for the First Time

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – As the class of 2022 signees roll in on National Signing Day, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown met with the media on Wednesday afternoon to talk about each signee.

Down below is a transcript of what Brown said about each individual. The signees are in alphabetical order from last name.

Jeremiah Aaron – WR:

As a kid, he’s really, really productive. He’s going to have the ability to play inside and outside. If you look what he’s done two years, played for Scott Parr, who was the head coach at Navarra, now he’s at Louisiana Tech. I like Jeremiah. I like the skill set. I like the fact he was really productive, he was a great perimeter blocker as well. He’s strong and he’s really good at return game. He was a punt returner, which is something that we need, we’ve got to improve at.  

Aric Burton – DL:

Aric is very much a developmental player. He was born in the United States and then went to Germany and then just came back. He played his senior year at Clearwater Academy. He’s long, really lean right now, it’s going to be a two-year project for him to get to the weight. What really drew us to him was his ability to get off on snap count. We need to affect more passes but we haven’t. We haven’t created takeaways at the rate we need to create takeaways.

Lyn-J Dixon – RB:

Lyn-J came and visited Troy. He was around with Gunnar [Watson] to games, camps, those type of things. So we had a pre-existing relationship. Obviously he was really successful and I think this really speaks well to Lyn-J too is the people at Clemson there that there’s several that I really trust and they all were really positive. He’s productive, plus he’s the right kind of guy.

Maurice Hamilton – OL:

He’s a guy that can bend. I would say his ability to bend really drew us to him, he could get low and he generated movement. He’s really physical and he’s been demanded of it. So his coach Mac Stephens played in the NFL for a long time, he’s got a tough football program there at Cleveland Heights. We feel like Moe was going to be prepared. 

Zeiqui Lawton – DL:

I thought it’s important to bring back homegrown talent, guy that definitely can play, he’s changed his body. I think he’s a really good fit for what we’re going to do on the interior defensive line. As for position, probably will know by the end of spring ball.

Landen Livingston – OL:

We think he could be a guard or center. He’s got great football intelligence. He plays in an offense where he pulls and traps. He’s really athletic on the speed, played basketball.

Nicco Marchiol – QB:

His mom is from North Carolina, so they have some family here on the east coast. He’s got some ‘it’ factor and I think he’s going to be a guy that’s a fan favorite from day one. He’s got charisma, I think he’s got strong leadership capabilities. He’s a student of the game, he loves football. He’s been groomed from an early age by his father, Ken, to be a Division-I and hopefully, an NFL quarterback. But when you go watch him play, dual thread, he’s left-handed. The ball comes out of his hand really smooth. He’s got a strong arm, he can run, he’s a physical runner. And he’s a great teammate. You think when you get to know these kids, “oh, yeah, good kids,” but then when you go watch and you’re able to watch and just sit back and he’s first to congratulate his teammates when they score, he meets the defense when they come off the field, so he’s talented but he’s also got those intangibles that you’re like okay. These are the things that really take somebody who’s really talented and make them special.

Mar’Ques “Hershey” McLaurin – S:

He’s on the all-name team, for sure. He was a high school quarterback, hurts his knee, misses the entire year. Great student, could had several opportunities to go play college football coming out of high school. Chose to go to Jones County Community College, one of the better Junior College programs in the country. They move him to safety. He looks the part, he was here this past weekend, great family. He’s long, every bit of 6-foot-2, 200 pounds-plus, we fully anticipate him coming in and being able to compete.

Corbin Page – TE:

We felt like Corbin was the top prospect in the state this year. He has really invested a lot of time and energy changing his body. At this time a year ago, he’s probably 30-to-40 pounds heavier. He spent the first three years of his high school career being an in-line tight end and really just blocking, and they’ve thrown the occasional pass. 

Asani Redwood – DL:

He had 19.5 sacks, that’s a lot of sacks. So, certainly humble individual. He’s a guy that is just now scratching the surface. I mean, he has so much to learn. He reminds me of Akheem [Mesidor] in a lot of different ways. I’m not putting that [on him], Akheem came here with a freshman All-American, two-year starter but a lot of the same qualities that we saw in Akheem , I see those in Asani as well. 

Oliver Straw – P:

He’s from the ProKick organization. If you look across college football, most of the guys that are from Australia, or ProKick, they do a great job at training guys there. Oli, he’s unique, he can kick with both feet. He can roll to his right, roll to his left. What Oli will give us is the opportunity to do is change field position. 

Sullivan Weidman – OL:

He’s big, I think he can play any of the spots, guard or tackle. Really strong guy, he stays on his feet.