MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - So here’s a story about a young man named Tremayne McNair. Let’s begin by stating that his name is not Tremain Mack. I repeat: he has nothing to do with the 1996 WVU-Miami game.

Now that I’ve provided the disclaimer, let’s find out why he does have something to do with the 2011 Mountaineers. On Tuesday, the current WVU coaching staff decided to offer him a scholarship to join them in Morgantown following his senior season.

He’s a big, speedy linebacker from White Oak High School in North Carolina, and he says he was not at all expecting the offer from the folks in gold and blue. McNair was in his weight lifting class when he found out the news.

“My coach heard the phone ring during weight training and he told me it was the coach from West Virginia and they wanted to offer me,” McNair told wvillustrated.com.

So, naturally, the next chance he got to call back to the WVU football offices, he took it. He says it was a brief conversation, but it was to the point. The Mountaineers think he’s got what it takes to succeed at West Virginia University.

“It went pretty well,” he says. “They showed they had a lot of interest in me. They had seen some of my film and they liked what they saw.”

What they likely enjoyed seeing on that film was the fact that McNair has proven to be a rangy athlete who can cover extremely well for his position while still possessing that all-important quality in any linebacker.

“I like to hit, so that’s always a good thing at my position.”

McNair says his surprise when he got the offer from West Virginia was quickly replaced by joy as he thought about the possibilities of playing for the Mountaineers.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - On Friday, Airyn Willis spoke with his football coach and the school’s athletic director and found out it might be a good idea to give Lonnie Galloway from West Virginia University a quick phone call last Friday. It turns out the Mountaineers wide receivers coach was ready to give the High Point, North Carolina junior an offer with WVU.

“[Galloway] said I had a lot of skills and he was interested in me,” Willis told wvillustrated.com on Wednesday. “He was like, ‘If you’re interested in us, then you have a scholarship with us.’”

Willis’s Southwest Guilford High School is not full of future Division 1 athletes, but the one they do have has ties with the Mountaineers that even he did not know of until recently. His father and Brindon Christman, the school’s athletic director, both played football at Morehead High School where they competed against cross-town rival Rockingham County High.

Coach Galloway was Rockingham’s quarterback in those days, and when he heard his old rivals might have a talented receiver on their hands; he contacted Christman to find out just how talented he was.

As it turns out, he is talented enough to draw a real interest from the Mountaineers.

In his junior year, he played quarterback, running back, wide receiver, cornerback and safety, while also returning kicks. As a senior, he will be focusing on quarterback, but he knows that at the next level his best chance at success is as a receiver.

At about 6-foot-2, 175 pounds, he has the size for the position, but he says his speed is what has always caught the attention of the coaches and scouts he talks to. Besides his physical attributes, he takes pride in one other characteristic that will certainly help his team in his final season.