Eddie Kelly Jr.’s college football path is about to take him to a fifth school in five years, and the veteran defensive lineman announced Tuesday that he will sign with Mississippi State.
West Virginia had already moved on assuming Kelly’s college career was finished after the 2025 season. The Mountaineers spent the offseason reworking the defensive line, adding pieces through both the high school ranks and the transfer portal, and they’ve now brought in more than 80 players overall. With roster space tight, there simply wasn’t much room left for a return.
Kelly did have some interest in coming back to Morgantown, but the fit was complicated. West Virginia had spent the offseason building around players already in the program, and bringing Kelly back would have forced the staff to reconsider how snaps were distributed. That’s not a small decision when younger players have spent the offseason grinding for their roles.
He would have helped with depth, no doubt. But he also would have needed time to get back up to speed, and the staff wasn’t likely to hand over reps to a one-year player if it meant pulling them from someone the program had already invested in.
Kelly’s 2025 season gave West Virginia plenty to evaluate. He played in six games and finished with 25 tackles, three passes defended, 1.5 tackles for loss and 0.5 sacks while averaging 32.7 snaps per game. He also produced five pressures and five hurries, with two of each coming in the overtime win over Pitt in the Backyard Brawl.
That Pitt game was easily his biggest night. He was also strong against BYU, where he posted three tackles and two stops, those being tackles that counted as a failure for the offense.
Outside of that, his production dipped. He was solid against Colorado, but the final month of the season was rough, and aside from a couple of pressures in the blowout loss to Texas Tech, there wasn’t much else to note.
Before arriving at West Virginia, Kelly had already been around the block at South Florida, Georgia Tech and Missouri. In 49 career games, he has totaled 102 tackles, 12.5 tackles for loss and three sacks.
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