WVU football receives four commitments

By JIM BUTTA, jbutta@newsandsentinel.com
MORGANTOWN—Apparently, the annual Gold/Blue Scrimmage wasn’t the only thing Mountaineer coach Bill Stewart and the members of his staff had on their minds Saturday.

Recruiting still is high on the new regime’s to-do list as three players committed to the Mountaineers following the 86-minute scrimmage while one other added his name to the Class of 2009 on Monday.

The four additions raise the total number of commits to six, joining Great Bridge High School (Chesapeake, Va.) wide receiver Logan Heastie and Phoebus High School quarterback Tahj Boyd (Hampton, Va.), who gave their verbals back in March.

Stewart’s latest crop includes a pair of linebackers, another wide receiver and a defensive tackle.

Choosing the Mountaineers over Ohio State is Steubenville High School standout Branko Busick (6-2, 228). Following a 25-minute meeting with Stewart, Busick gave his word to play for the Mountaineers.

Also giving their commitments following the Gold’s 59-15 victory were middle linebacker Chris Snook from Highland High School in Medina, Ohio, and receiver Deon Long from Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C.

Snook chose West Virginia over Atlantic Coast Conference member Wake Forest and Big East rival Cincinnati while Long (6-0, 180) turned down offers from Michigan State and Duke to wear the gold and blue.

As a junior, Long latched onto 70 passes for 1,189 yards and 15 touchdowns and earned honorable mention All-Met hones and first-team DC Sports Fan.

The commitments continued on Monday when 6-foot-1, 265-pound defensive tackle Dominik Davenport chose the gold and blue over the ACC’s Florida State, Maryland and Virginia.

Davenport collected 124 tackles as a junior at Phoebus and could play any of the three down linemen positions in the Mountaineeers’ 3-3-5 stack alignment.

Of course, one must always remember that a verbal commitment isn’t legally binding and won’t keep other schools from still pursuing the services of those who say they are coming to WVU.

In other news coming out of Morgantown, first-year director of sstrength and conditioning Mike Joseph completed his staff with the additions of Shawn Gaunt as the director of speed/skill development, Beth Byron and Paul Chandler as assistant strength and conditioning coaches and Corey Twine as an assistant coordinator of sstrength and conditioning.

Morgantown native Brett Kelley joined Stewart’s first Mountaineer staff as the team’s video coordinator.

Former Parkersburg South standout Cody Nutter continued his march towards a possible starting berth next fall with a solid spring outing.

“He (Nutter) is in the picture at long snapper,” Stewart said on Saturday. “Adam (Hughes) did a great job during the spring and has elevated himself to the No. 1 spot, but Cody is right there.”

Former Williamstown standouts Travis Buttrey and Benji Powers both are attempting to make the team on the defensive side of the football.

Buttrey is a lineman, Powers a secondary member.

Contact Jim Butta at

jbutta@newsandsentinel.com