MORGANTOWN — One significant difference between Rich Rodriguez’s offense from 2007 to 2025 is its use of tight ends.
While the Mountaineers had five or six tight ends on their roster in Rodriguez’s previous stint at WVU, their usage wasn’t typically frequent.
With Rodriguez as Jacksonville State’s coach, last year’s Gamecocks roster contained seven tight ends. Four of them played in at least 13 games, and three of them caught multiple passes.
One of the Gamecocks’ tight ends last season, Jacob Barrick, followed Rodriguez to West Virginia.
“Personnel-wise, that has been a big change for us,” Rodriguez said. “It used to be we were a lot of 10 personnel [one back and no tight end] with some occasional 11 personnel [one back and one tight end]. Now we have at least one tight end in the game probably 70% of the time, and then sometimes two tight ends and sometimes even three tight ends.”
West Virginia lost its top three tight ends — Kole Taylor, Treylan Davis and Jack Sammarco — from last year’s club.
Though he played just two seasons for the Mountaineers after transferring from LSU, Taylor caught 78 passes for 892 yards in his time at WVU. Despite his brief career as a Mountaineer, he is fourth on West Virginia’s all-time list for receptions by a tight end.
After hauling in 35 receptions in 2023 and 43 in 2024, Taylor is one of just two tight ends in Mountaineer history with two seasons of 35 or more catches, joining Lovett Purnell (41 in 1994 and 37 in 1995).
While Taylor was more the pass-catching tight end, Davis was the consummate blocker at that position. He played in every game for WVU from 2002-24. While he caught 13 passes for 111 yards during that time, it was his ability to open holes that earned him a prominent place in the rotation.
Sammarco, who played in all 13 games last season as a freshman, transferred to Alabama.
Rodriguez is replacing that trio with tight ends who come in a variety of sizes and experience levels. WVU’s coach wants tight ends who are multifaceted.
“They have to be a big, physical guy who can block ends and [line]backers but athletic enough to run pass routes in space,” Rodriguez said. “If you have a guy who is big and athletic and you can get him out in space, all coaches will tell you that is hard to defend.”
The Mountaineers return three tight ends from last year’s club — Greg Genross (6-foot-6, 235 pounds, senior), Noah Braham (6-3, 245, sophomore) and Colin McBee (6-0, 239, junior).
Rodriguez’s emphasis on the tight end position has changed a great deal since his previous stint at WVU. He now wants tight ends who can not only block but also catch, and he wants several of them.
“I like the room, but we’re using so many of them now in a different role that we have to find the number we need,” West Virginia’s coach said. “We need at least four because we’ll play three at a time, maybe even four at a time.”
