MORGANTOWN — When all four of WVU’s top receivers left the program this offseason, the Mountaineers were in need of someone to take charge of that room for 2023. Enter NC State transfer Devin Carter.
“I kind of felt that was a role I was going to take on wherever I went,” Carter said after practice on Tuesday. “That’s just kind of my personality.”
Carter stepped in as the leader of WVU’s wide receiving corps on day one and has already begun mentoring some of the group’s youngest members, including true freshmen Traylon Ray and Rodney Gallagher.
“You just try to guide them through the little mistake that you see so they don’t repeat them,” Carter said. “Or if there’s something that you didn’t learn until you were a vet, you try to teach them while they’re young…I wasn’t looking as good as they are looking when I was a freshman. It’s good to see them come in and start making plays right away.”
Carter spent five seasons with the Wolfpack and remembers the veterans who helped him through his first fall camp.
“Camp was a wake-up call,” Carter recalled of his experience in 2018. “Throughout my time there, my first semester there were guys like Kelvin Harmon, Jakobi Meyers and Steph Louis that would lead me and push me in the right direction.”
Burks the ballhawk
It’s no secret the Mountaineers were not good at taking the ball away last season. Defensive back Malachi Ruffin single-handedly had half of the team’s total interceptions, two of four.
“Turnovers are the golden standard for defense,” pass rusher Jared Barlett said Tuesday. “You’ve got to get the ball back to the offense no matter the situation or time of game or whatever circumstance you’re in.”
Creating more turnovers has been the focus of WVU’s defense since the end of last season and Barlett said one player in particular has started to show a lot of improvement this fall.
“By far Aubrey Burks,” Bartlett said. “He usually is in the right spot based on coverage. He can read the quarterback’s eyes in our set a little better (than last year) from what I’ve seen.”
Burks, a junior safety, started in 11 games last season and had one of the team’s few takeaways, a game-sealing interception in the fourth quarter against Baylor.
Expanding horizons
The Big 12 is continuing to grow. After moving to 14 teams this year, the conference will expand to 16 schools in 2024, half of whom will be first or second-year members.
While conference leadership is excited about the money so many new members will help bring in, Bartlett said players are excited about all the new places they’ll get to travel to.
“I think it’s pretty cool to have new opponents in the conference and being able to go different places and play different teams,” he said
Even though Bartlett, a redshirt-junior, won’t be around long enough to play against all of the newcomers, there’s one road trip in particular he’s looking forward to this season.
“UCF, going to Orlando this year is going to be great, especially as a guy that’s from Florida, it’s exciting to go down there,” the Miami native said. “It’ll be nice to have a lot of my family, who haven’t been able to make it up to a lot of games, be able to go to that. It’ll be exciting.”
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