MORGANTOWN -
A breakfast with the coaches finished off Brandon Napoleon's
official visit to WVU on Sunday morning.
Committed since June, Napoleon has come to campus many times
in an unofficial capacity, but this weekend everything finally started becoming
more real. Glancing around at members of the staff that he'll be playing for in
just a few months' time, he felt certain that his decision to join the
Mountaineers was the right one.
"I got comfortable with all the coaches the first three
times I came up," says Napoleon, a 6-foot, 175-pound defensive back. "These
guys are great people and that's what West Virginia produces – great people and
great individuals – that's what my family stands for, the morals and all that
and they show the same type of morals."
Napoleon, whose father Eugene played for West Virginia in
the 80s, has felt a connection with Morgantown for quite some time. In recent
months, he's been showing his interest in the program publicly with an
occasional tweet about WVU.
As the Mountaineers work to complete their coaching staff,
Napoleon kept a close eye on all the latest speculation and developments and
expressed his thoughts through the social media platform.
For the entire season, he's paid attention to the football
team as though he were already signed and added to the roster. He felt the
highs of WVU's successes as well as the sting of any failure, even watching
from his hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey where he's rated the state's 26th-best
player according to Rivals.com.
"It was crazy," he says. "The Pitt game, I almost had a
heart attack, me and my dad watching it. It's just like being a player that's
not playing, but you know you're still part of the team. You're going to be
with those guys next year so you want to see them do well, you want to see them
progress."
Hosting Napoleon on his visit was West Virginia freshman
cornerback Terrell Chestnut, a highly rated recruit who sat out his first
season after undergoing shoulder surgery.
Along with Chestnut, Napoleon spent most of his time with
running back Andrew Buie, both of whom he was familiar with prior to the
weekend from 7-on-7 camps and through other relationships in high school
football.
There were also obviously other recruits with him for much
of the time and as he and Mountaineer commit J.T. Washington already knew all
the reasons why he chose West Virginia University for his college football, he
decided to share them with other prospects who hadn't yet made up their minds.
"I was doing that the whole trip. Me and J.T. were trying to
get Schyler Miles, the linebacker from Florida, and Clint Heaven, the safety
from Florida, to commit the whole time," says Napoleon. "I think we did a good
job and hopefully we'll get one of them."
Napoleon says Holgorsen spoke with him about coaching
changes being made, but asked him not to share any of the information he was
told. Regardless of the coaches, he knows he committed to WVU itself and not
one man, so he remains confident that changes he's aware of will work out for
the program.
On Tuesday, both Holgorsen and assistant coach Daron Roberts
are expected to visit him at his home in New Jersey. Rather than spend time
coaxing uncommitted athletes to join the program, they'll be taking time to see
one who has remained loyal.
"It means a lot," says Napoleon. "It means I'm an important
piece to this project that they're trying to build at West Virginia and as
Coach Holgorsen was telling me before, he's happy I've stayed committed. A lot
of coaches wouldn't do that."
But Napoleon knows these coaches would, and that in itself
is a reason to remain steadfast in his commitment.
"That's why I committed in the first place is for the
school, Coach [Dana] Holgorsen and the tradition. It should be a great four
years."
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2013 WorldNow and WVILL. All Rights Reserved.
