Local Sports

Mountaineers garnered a bargain in Ayden Garnes

MORGANTOWN -- One of the most popular shows on PBS is "Antiques Roadshow," a show that appeals to the bargain hunter in all of us, and who among us isn't a bargain hunter?

Looking to steal a deal runs through all walks of life, from grocery shoppers to antique collectors to sports coaches or general managers, which is what makes one of West Virginia's top transfers such an intriguing story this year.

See, "Antiques Roadshow" features people who may have gone to a yard sale and come away with an original Norman Rockwell illustration worth $15,000 for $15 or bought a beat-up looking statue in a shop that turns out to be a valuable Ming Dynasty artifact worth $7,000 for $30.

Well, Neal Brown uncovered a Rolex of a transfer in cornerback Ayden Garnes, who probably will be starting against Penn State on Aug. 31, in the most unlikely of places.

You don't expect to come away with a gem playing in the secondary of a team you just beat, 56-17, with 315 passing yards and four touchdowns, but that's just what happened when the Mountaineers played Duquesne last year.

Garnes first came to the public's attention early in spring practice when Brown singled him out on the first day in pads.

"He's going to surprise people," Brown said then. "He really jumped out at us when we played him last year. He can run. He can run stride for stride with EJ (Horton), who's as fast as anybody we're going to play. He's always around the ball. He had multiple picks, he had two for a touchdown on Friday. I like the way he plays. He's really smart, and he can play a bunch of different positions."

Things only got better as he went through summer drills and then camp. He has proven himself to be talented and hungry to succeed.

"There's always been a chip on my shoulder. I knew I was under-recruited in high school, and that was a big thing," Garnes said. "I was being recruited by a lot of Group of 5 schools."

There was a reason for that, but it had little to do with his ability.

"COVID hit in March of my junior year, so all of my junior year visits were canceled," he explained. "After that, I just tried to work. We only got to play four games my senior year. I had good tape, but it wasn't enough."

Power 5 schools ignored him but, when Duquesne came into the picture late, he jumped at their offer.

"I was like, I'm going to go here and just work. I got to a place where I felt like I was going to be able to move up," Garnes said.

His first year was a disappointment, though, in that he broke an ankle and redshirted his freshman year.

That meant he virtually wasted his junior and senior years in high school and his freshman year in college, but things got a whole lot better last season when Duquesne finished 7-5 overall but won the Northeast Conference title with a 6-1 record.

"I felt like winning a championship there would be one of the biggest things I could do," he said.

Duquesne was an everyday stop on scouts' itineraries, but Garnes was confident he had the ability to play at a Power 5 level because he had played against some teams such as Florida State and West Virginia.

Still, those games were an awakening.

Take the game at WVU.

"That first touchdown when the musket went off, it scared me a little bit. That's when I knew we're in West Virginia," he joked.

But he wasn't joking when he saw the speed of the players or when he tried to blitz, something he was quite successful with at Duquesne.

"When I played against West Virginia, there were certain things I couldn't do. Wyatt Milum was picking me up every blitz. At Duquesne it was easy. Nobody ever knew where I was coming from."

But good enough scouting to discover him also could discover how he blitzed and he had an All-American lineman to get past.

And there was another aspect of playing on this level that opened his eyes, a walkon kid named Hudson Clement making his first WVU appearance against Duquesne.

"That's a funny story," Garnes said. "We came into the game and we were focused on Devin Carter because he had a lot of big catches at Penn State, so our eyes were on him. He was out there for pregame warmups but he took his pads off, so we were like 'Who are we going to see?'"

Clement replaced him and they'd never heard of him.

"It was OK, we got to try to figure this guy out,' but by the time we figured him out he had two touchdowns," Garnes said.

He finished with 5 catches for 177 yards and three touchdowns, the first two against him. By the fourth quarter, though, Garnes said he finally had him figured out.

That, though, was on his mind when he came to WVU to play for the Mountaineers.

"When I first got here, it was like 'Man, I don't even want to talk to that guy. He did us bad.' He had an amazing game on us," Garnes said. But through the winter workout they began to bond and build a relationship.

"Me and Hudson go against each other every day now and it's a blessing for both of us."

Garnes has proven himself in camp.

"I don't know if they caught a ball on Garnes all camp," defensive secondary coach ShaDon Brown said entering the last week of camp. "He has a chance to be a plus player in this league."