WVU used day three of fall camp on Friday to tinker with its wide receiver group, and Jaden Bray was one of the players getting a look in a different spot. The Mountaineers moved Bray into the slot, a change that’s familiar enough to him - he has lined up there 57 times in his career - even though he’s mostly been an outside receiver.
Rich Rodriguez didn’t hide his appreciation for what Bray brings.
“He’s just a good football player," head coach Rich Rodriguez said about Bray. "We GPS our guys, and Jaden will be the guy that gets more yards than anybody.
He'll have 8,000 yards in a practice. He’s just a hard worker and a good football player."
Bray said the work inside was a new experience with this offense, but one he handled comfortably.
“It was fun. It was my first time going in there with the offense, so it was cool.
I felt comfortable out there. It was cool to be in there just to go against some safeties, not always going against corners.
There’s definitely stuff I got to work on, but it was real cool to go out there.
"It’s easier (to go against safeties) because they’re off, so you don’t really have to deal with them all up in your face. You just come off the ball, win with more of your second-level releases.
We have a couple of different route packages that go in for the slot. But we also have a whole bunch of looks where I am at outside, and I’ll come in and do the same thing the slot does.
I’ve run some of those routes before. It’s not just like completely new going in there because we do have some of the same routes.”
The move doesn’t look like a permanent switch. Instead, it appears to be another way for WVU to shuffle its receivers and open up more options.
DJ Epps, who transferred in from Troy, is projected to start in the slot, though he played mostly on the outside before arriving at WVU. That leaves room for the two to potentially trade places depending on the look the staff wants.
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