Throughout the years, Florida recruiting has been very good to WVU.
Former head coach Don Nehlen is in the College Football Hall of Fame partially because of kids from the Sunshine State. Current Marshall coach Doc Holliday earned a reputation mining Florida, initially for Nehlen.
Heck, coaches have been hired in Morgantown simply because of their Florida connections. Damon Cogdell, recently released, is the latest.
Then there's current Mountaineer assistant JaJuan Seider. He's respected both as a Florida recruiter and a coach.
Yet look at WVU's latest signing class. Straight out of Florida, you have quarterback Cody Saunders. Then you have ...
You have ...
Uh, no one? Really? As Nehlen would say, holy jumpin' catfish.
"It was kind of a down year in Florida, to be honest with you," Seider said on Wednesday. "You kind of had a top-12 big tier of players and then everybody else was kind of on the fence. We had the same type of players, if not better, in our surrounding states."
Understand this isn't a criticism. It's neither good nor bad that WVU signed kids from other states. It's simply surprising. Signing players from Florida is as much a Mountaineer tradition as couch burning.
Within the 2016 class, Saunders hails from Panama City Beach. Also, two of the seven junior college players WVU signed - cornerback Mike Daniels and offensive lineman Craig Smith - are originally from Miami and West Palm Beach, respectively. But, still, that's only three of 27. Stunning.
"You'll see that change," Seider said, "because next year [in Florida] it's loaded. The next couple of years it'll be back to where it used to be."
On Wednesday, WVU head coach Dana Holgorsen said his staff is recruiting more regionally for this class. Indeed, seven are from Ohio, four from Pennsylvania and three from Maryland.
"It just fell that way," Seider said. "You recruit your area. I read something about us signing seven Ohio kids. That's the most ever. We hit it right. Then we signed so many kids from junior college. That ate up our numbers.
"This year was about getting our needs. We went to Detroit to get a running back [Martell Pettaway]. We went to North Carolina to get a running back [Kennedy McKoy]. We went to Mississippi to get a running back [Justin Crawford].
"Now, we did get a quarterback [Saunders] from Florida. The JC tackle kid [Smith] is from Florida. The Mike Daniels kid is from Florida. So you're still in Florida, but going a different route."
Lightly though. Very lightly. And the reason it's surprising is because a study once showed Florida produces enough Division I players each year to fill 16 to 17 classes. Texas leads the way with enough for 18 classes. California averages enough for 12 to 13. Of the three, Florida is the closest for WVU to mine.
"You're surprised when it's like this, but it's been such a great run in Florida," Seider said. "It was just a down year. Then you match that up with what we needed. We needed to get older on defense. Our junior college kids are better than the high school kids we were going to recruit.
"On offense, we were in there with some big kids at the end, but it just went the other way. It's part of recruiting."
nnn
While Seider was near, I asked about the Mountaineers' running back situation. WVU took a hit to the bow when Wendell Smallwood declared early for the NFL draft.
"It changed our recruiting because we can say whatever, but we only have one proven kid and that's Rushel [Shell]," Seider said. "Nobody else has stepped up and given us the confidence that he can do it. If we had a kid we knew could be a No. 2 guy and push for No. 1, then we wouldn't have signed a JC kid [Crawford]. We have high school kids. So you get older kids."
The quote has to be a knock at redshirt freshman Donte Thomas-Williams, who hit WVU as a four-star player. Other than that, though, the Mountaineers' cupboard is bare. About the only option aside from Shell and Thomas-Williams is Jacky Marcellus.
"We have to figure out who is going to be that guy," Seider said. "Right now it's Rushel until someone comes and takes it from him. We know he can be a really good player when he's motivated. Right now he is.
"But our offense isn't a traditional offense. You don't see an I-formation where the running back stays in the game 50, 60, 70 plays. We motion guys out. We line them out. So they might go five, six plays in a row and need a blow. It's a unique situation. That's why we like to have two, three, four and even five guys to rotate in if we can."
It'll certainly be interesting to see Shell, Crawford and even Thomas-Williams battle.