WVU Will Play True Freshman Running Back as Season Winds Down

During last week’s press conference, WVU head coach Neal Brown said that, with only five games left in the season, some players that have been redshirted will start getting some playing time.

With the new redshirt rules, players will be able to appear in a maximum of four games and keep their redshirt for the season. Freshman corner Tae Mayo has already played in a couple of games due to injuries and ejections, sophomore quarterback Jarret Doege redshirted at the beginning of the year after having offseason surgery and is expected to play some in the season’s last four weeks and on Monday Brown brought up another player he expects to find the field sometime soon.

With the struggles West Virginia has faced running the ball this season, Brown announced on Monday that true freshman running back Tony Mathis will start to get some carries as the team enters the final stretch of its season. Brown said Mathis will travel with the team to Waco, Texas on Thursday but he has not yet decided if he will play against Baylor. Either way Brown is confident Mathis will play sometime this season.

“You will see him as we go,” Brown said. “Will it be Thursday night? I’m not sure yet. He’ll make the trip, whether he’ll play or not, to be determined but he will play and get some carries at some point this year.”

Mathis was a three-star recruit out of Cedartown High School in Orlando, Florida before joining the Mountaineers this season. In his final two high school seasons, Mathis rushed for 2,077 yards and 50 touchdowns. He averaged 6.2 yards per carry as a senior. No WVU running back is averaging more than four thus far this season.

Brown said that Mathis had been dealing with a knee injury that held him out of practice for a while, but that he returned recently and impressed the coaching staff with his efforts during the bye week.

“If I had to pick one guy who really stood out last week, it’s him,” Brown said. “He’s a little bit behind. He had a little knee injury where he was out for three weeks. The OU week was his first week of practicing full speed and so last week he was back at Monday night football for the first time in probably four or five weeks and he did a really nice job.”

WVU currently ranks last in the Big 12 with 617 rushing yards. The next closest team is Iowa State, which has 1,209 rushing yards.