West Virginia may have signed its largest recruiting class ever in 2026, but the real payoff could be the kind that sneaks up on people. Amari Latimer, Kevin Brown and Matt Sieg are the names drawing the most attention, yet cornerback Vincent Smith is already sounding like the sort of player who could force the staff to rethink where he belongs.
At the moment, Smith is listed on the WVU roster at 6-foot-1 and 215 pounds. The reality may be even more imposing. He’s been pushing 6-foot-2, and Rod West believes the body keeps climbing from there.
“He went to an Under Armour or Rivals camp, and he ran a 4.42, and the card said 202 pounds. It was a typo.
He weighed in at 220. But nobody knew that.
So for me, I was like, I want to keep this quiet because if you can find a kid that’s 220 pounds that strong, that explosive, to me, I think big picture. In a few years, that kid is going to be 240 pounds, and he’s going to be hell on wheels.
What position that is? We’ll see.
I hope he stays at cornerback, but he’s a naturally big kid, and I think at some point you’re just going to see him get bigger, faster, stronger, and continue to grow.”
That kind of size-speed combination has people around the program thinking beyond one spot on the field. West says he hopes Smith stays at corner, but the door is open to safety, nickel/sam or even WILL linebacker depending on how his frame develops over the next year or so.
Latimer, who lines up at nickel/sam, said he was stunned when he learned Smith was working with the corners.
“I talk to my teammates about it all the time. I can’t believe it.
He’s an athletic freak," Latimer said. "I think he’s going to be able to contribute at some point this season.
I think he’s taking great strides through fall camp as well. A guy like that, you can’t teach that.
I mean, that’s just God-given ability.”
Latimer also sees the same thing West does: a player whose future position may not be locked in yet, even if he can clearly handle cornerback right now.
“Possibly. I mean, obviously he looks like a safety, like a third-year safety right now.
He moves well to be his size. I would have thought myself that he would have been a safety.
When he first came in, I thought he was a safety. He can move not only vertically or like in straight-line speed, he has lateral movement, lateral quickness as well.”
Smith’s background helps explain why WVU likes what it sees. His mom travels all over the world, and his uncle works as a producer for Tyler Perry Studios, so responsibility came early. That maturity showed up during the recruiting process, too.
West pointed to the daily grind Smith embraced as a teenager: school, a job, and then a drive an hour away for DB training every day. That left an impression.
“He was so unusual for most 17-year-old kids - he would go to school, have a job, and then he’d drive an hour away to do DB training. Every day.
So to me, that was very refreshing. I think a lot of the guys that you recruit now, they want attention: what can you do for them?
Vincent was always a hard worker, so it was hard to get a hold of him sometimes because he may be either at work or training until 10 p.m. Every day he showed that maturity level, and we’ve been pleased to have him.”
West said Smith is about 215 pounds right now, extremely athletic and fast, and could become one of those players who fills multiple roles over time. The early expectation is that he’ll help on special teams, with a chance to work his way onto defense during the season.
The Orland Park, Illinois, product chose West Virginia over Iowa, Iowa State, Kentucky, Purdue, USC and several other programs.
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