MORGANTOWN -
Daikiel Shorts
visited West Virginia on Sunday and by Monday evening, he knew the place he had
just left behind is where he wanted to spend his collegiate career.
Shorts, a
6-foot-1, 200-pound receiver out of Elkton, Md., committed to the Mountaineers
Monday after speaking with his recruiting coach, Daron Roberts and WVU head
coach Dana Holgorsen.
"I just fell in
love with it," Shorts said Monday night. "I pretty much knew I was going to go
there, but I didn't know when I was going to make my decision. I talked it over
with my coach and my parents and we felt like I was ready to commit."
He had already
come to Morgantown earlier in the summer for a one-day camp, but this past
weekend was a chance to see the campus and speak one-on-one with the coaches
rather than run drills on the field.
Shorts did not
need any further convincing than what an unofficial visit to Morgantown
provided him. On campus with his Eastern Christian Academy teammate, running
back Wendell Smallwood, Shorts had the opportunity to see in person what Coach
Roberts had told him countless times over the phone. The fit felt right, so he
made the jump to WVU.
"I love that they
have a great college atmosphere," says Shorts. "I fell in love with the
facilities, the coaches and the offensive scheme seems perfect for my position.
I'm really looking forward to it."
Shorts becomes
WVU's 11th commitment for the 2013 class and the second receiver
after Daryl Worley, who plays both offense and defense, committed earlier on
Monday.
After talking
with the WVU coaches, Shorts felt that as a receiver, there truly was no better
option than siding with the Mountaineers. Holgorsen's offense and its proven
past lured in a wideout who believes his physicality will work perfectly with
what West Virginia puts on the field.
"I'm a pretty big
receiver, I'm physical, I can run well and I always run after the catch," he
says.
Those aspects of
his game are what he believes receivers coach Shannon Dawson is looking for and
they are why he feels that he will have success in a Mountaineer uniform.
"In this offense,
at my position, I feel like the sky is the limit," he says. "You always want to
go to an offense like that and I'm really excited to get going."
Shorts is
planning to catch a home game in Morgantown at some point during the fall to
get an idea of what the atmosphere is like when 60,000 pour into Milan Puskar
Stadium.
In the meantime,
he gets to work for his senior season and the work he needs to put in alongside
Smallwood and the rest of his teammates to have a successful end to his high
school career.
The two have
taken other visits to college campuses together and have been able to feed off
each other in terms of how they feel about one program over another.
"It helps to have
him down there because we both know what we're going through since we're both players,"
says Shorts. "It's always good to have a peer who can give you their
perspective of it."
He says the two
have had conversations about the possibility of winding up at the same school
and when Shorts gets to practice on Tuesday, he intends to get in Smallwood's
ear about WVU.
"I'll see him
tomorrow at practice, so I'll talk to him about coming to West Virginia and
being a Mountaineer also. I sure hope so, but it's up to him," says Shorts.
With the
recruiting process behind him, Shorts can focus on doing some of his own
recruiting while preparing for one last go around on the prep level.
"I'm so excited
about it," Shorts said of his commitment. "It started to get stressful after
awhile, so I'm relieved about it now and I'm ready for the season to start so I
can play some football."
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