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MORGANTOWN -- Before spring practice started, West Virginia football’s safety and more a utility freshman, Matt Sieg, drew a lot of interest. Sieg was a National Signing Day steal from rival Pitt, Penn State and other local schools, and was a top 5 high school prospect in Pennsylvania as a consensus 4-star.
Sieg drew a lot of interest from teams because he’s an overall athlete. He was the first player in WPIAL history to register 5,000 yards rushing and 3,000 yards passing for his career. Sieg was named first-team defensive back and had four interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. Sieg is a stud on both sides of the ball.
Part of the reason Sieg picked the Mountaineers was that Rich Rodriguez was allowing him to play on both sides of the ball. Rodriguez kept that promise and said he’d play two ways during his signing day press conference. Rodriguez reiterated that promise before spring ball.
However, with spring ball in full force, Sieg’s been focusing on just playing safety for now.
“He’s not been playing both sides,” Rodriguez said. “He’s just been playing defense.”
Sieg’s primary position was always going to be at defensive back, unless he breaks out as a star on offense. On most recruiting sites, he was listed as a safety and one of the best in the country. Through the few clips shown of WVU’s practice on social media, Sieg is making plays on defense.
“He’s comfortable there,” Rodriguez said. “He’s getting more and more comfortable every day. He gets more confident.”
Sieg, even as a freshman, is fighting for a starting role, or some role in the secondary this season. WVU lost a lot of pieces in the secondary due to graduation, like do-it-all defensive back Fred Perry, so the opportunities are there.
The hardest hurdle for a freshman to overcome is adjusting to the speed of the game. There’s always a jump in pace from high school to college because the athletes are getting bigger and faster. Usually, it takes quarterbacks a while to adjust, but it happens at every position.
Sieg has picked up the speed of the game pretty quickly.
“At this level, the speed of the game is a whole lot different, no matter what high school you came from and all that,” Rodriguez said. “He seems to be adjusted to that.”
Rodriguez has put him through his paces, too.
“He’ll see some different stuff in practice,” Rodriguez said. “We mix the tempos up. We’ll go slower tempo, so they see some things. We also have a faster tempo, and that makes it harder for him. But I want him to learn. I want to make it difficult for our safeties and our defensive guys to recognize stuff.”
Rodriguez didn’t make it sound like it was a concern that he wasn’t playing on offense, yet, even if the spring is meant for experimenting. The coaching staff is just throwing so much at the players, whether that’s scheme, fundamentals or how to practice, it’d be really hard to learn one position, let alone two.
Rodriguez realized maybe he’s asking too much, and is reeling it back in the few remaining practices of the spring.
“We’re probably doing more than we need to,” Rodriguez said. “I mean offensively and defensively, scheme-wise. It’s my responsibility. But I’m going to make my guys dial back some more because I’m not worried about tricking someone. I want to out-execute someone, not try to trick them.”
Rodriguez has been so busy, he hasn’t even thought about Sieg taking snaps on offense. He spoke with Sieg about it a few weeks ago, but nothing has happened since. Even if he hasn’t played offense yet, Sieg will definitely take snaps towards the end of the spring.
“Before the end of spring, well, a couple of days, we’ll have a few plays,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll see what he can do.”
2027 RB commits to WVU
West Virginia football picked up its second commitment for the 2027 class in less than 24 hours. 2027 running back Lee Prince Jr. announced he’s committed to the Mountaineers on social media, becoming the fourth commitment of the class. WVU received a commitment Thursday afternoon from linebacker Mason Cerovac.
Prince had multiple Power Four offers, including from Pitt, Oregon, Florida State, UCF and other Division I programs. He even went to the Seminoles Junior Day, but he picked the Mountaineers.
The Hollywood, Florida, native has all the makings of a great college running back. Prince brings blazing speed to WVU and was a state champion in the 100 meters. He also rushed for 765 yards, 12.1 yards per carry and nine touchdowns on the gridiron. Prince had breakaway speed and was hard to bring down at 5-foot-10 and 185 pounds.
Rich Rodriguez is known for running the rock all the way down the field, and a speed and tanky running back is essential. Prince is the first running back for the class, and there’ll likely be more to come, along with more high school recruits overall.