West Virginia’s roster picture for 2026 is getting a boost from the NCAA’s new age-based eligibility rule, and the Mountaineers have plenty of players who stand to benefit.
The rule gives athletes five years and up to five seasons in college sports, but it does not automatically create a sixth year for players who have already used four seasons in four years. That wrinkle matters for a few WVU veterans, and the issue is already headed for the courts.
Without an NCAA waiver or a lawsuit from the players, West Virginia would not be able to bring back punter Oliver Straw, tight end Jacob Barrick, defensive lineman Eddie Kelly, or defensive backs Fred Perry and Jason Chambers. Straw and Perry have logged a lot of college football.
Kelly has already been through four FBS programs. Chambers, though, spent his first two seasons at NC Central in the FCS, while Barrick played 10 games for Jacksonville State in 2022 and then appeared in just three games for 31 snaps on offense as a true freshman.
There is an argument for giving those two another year, but the bigger picture for the Mountaineers is that the roster already includes a long list of players who fit the new model and gain an extra season. That is before even getting to a portal class of 32 players who can play beyond 2026.
WVU has five fourth-year seniors who can take advantage of the rule, along with a group of underclassmen who now get the extra year they already earned on the field.
Among that group are RB Cam Cook, LB Ben Cutter, OL Cam Griffin, N/S Geimere Latimer and N/S Andrew Powdrell.
Latimer, Cutter and Powdrell all saw plenty of action in their first three years. Powdrell’s path is a little different, since he spent two years in the FCS at Montana State before moving to UNLV last season. Cook and Griffin, meanwhile, are two players who had seasons they might want back and no longer have to worry about.
Cook was injured early in his freshman year at TCU and played 50 snaps on offense. In nine games, he never topped 13 snaps, and he was at 10 or fewer snaps eight times.
Griffin’s freshman season was similar in another way: he played seven games and logged 68 snaps on the offensive line, which was two fewer than he had on special teams. He was at or below 15 snaps in eight games.
The extended underclassmen list is long, and it reaches across the roster.
CB Da'Mun Allen played in all nine games for Northwest Oklahoma in 2024 and finished with 23 tackles. Before that, he had a strong sophomore season at Hutchinson Community College.
RB Martavious Boswell, a junior, spent his first two seasons in junior college and played in six games with 39 carries and three catches at Blinn College in 2024.
DL Nate Gabriel appeared in 12 games for WVU in 2024, well beyond the old redshirt limit, but he finished with nine tackles and played fewer than 10 snaps in seven games.
WR Keon Hutchins, another junior, spent his first two seasons at two junior colleges and played in all 12 games for Hutchinson Community College in 2024, though he caught only five passes for 83 yards.
FB Kayden Luke earned special teams work at Arizona, but in 19 games on offense over his first two seasons, he played just 71 snaps.
S Kameron Reddic spent his first two seasons at Stephen F. Austin in the FCS.
As a true freshman, he played five games on defense for 80 snaps, with special teams work in each of those games and just special teams in three others. He finished with nine tackles.
CB Keyshawn Robinson was a regular on special teams in his first two college seasons with the Mountaineers, but he played no defensive snaps in 2024 and only 48 last season, never more than 15 in a game.
CB Nick Taylor was a regular in WVU’s defensive backfield last season and even started a game, but he had already blown past a redshirt as a true freshman at Appalachian State in 2024. He played in seven games and started once, including an 11-snap game and two others with fewer than 10 snaps.
DL Jaylen Thomas also made his mark in junior college as a sophomore, but he had eight tackles in eight games during his first season at Northwest Mississippi.
TE Ryan Ward, a true freshman at North Carolina in 2024, played two games on offense with one snap and seven snaps. He did not redshirt because he played eight games on special teams.
LB Ashton Woods, Ward’s classmate and teammate at UNC, played two games on defense with one snap in each and missed redshirting as well after appearing in four more games on special teams.
In Other News...
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Baker pointed to the way the players have been around one another away from football, including a gathering at the baseball regional against Kentucky, as evidence that the bond is real. The sense inside the program is that the buy-in is strong and the locker room is moving in the same direction, which is exactly the sort of foundation WVU needs as Rodriguez keeps trying to reshape the culture from the inside out. [Read more 🡒]