Former West Virginia offensive lineman Kyle Altuner is expected to transfer to Virginia Tech, @chris_hummer and I have learned for @cbssports/@247Sports.Was a Class of 2024 four-star recruit. pic.twitter.com/GTRNHGWVzU— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) December 30, 2024
Forums:
DISCLAIMER: Forum topics may not have been written or edited by The Key Play staff.
Comments
Crazy how suddenly OL might shape up into being a strength for this team!
Xavier Chaplin, the number 1 OL in the portal, has not been replaced. And unless somebody on the roster takes a huge leap forward, he won't be. This is definitely good news, but it still may be a year or more until we can talk about it being a "strength"
Not arguing that we'll miss him or that he needs to be replaced, just pointing out that he was the number 1 OL in the portal at the time he was graded and has since been bypassed by a few other portallers
Including being passed by Rimac who was the first OL commit for us.
Regardless of whether he was passed, see below, he plays a more premium position than Rimac
Rimac passed B Moore in the interior OL rankings on on3. Chaplin is still the overall number one lineman in the portal.
"Chaplin is still the overall number one lineman in the portal."- and we just fired his coach because he couldn't coach or develop apparently. lol.
I don't know what Crook was doing, but it didn't seem to be working in Blacksburg. One thing that looked obvious is Crook wasn't recruiting enough players or retaining them, which is how Chaplin ended up in the portal in the first place.
I don't know if I really buy OL grades overall, but I would love to have Chaplin back. That being said, the line is a unit and one standout player is only going to get you so far. In all likelihood getting 2-3 players from Moore's system and fitting 2-3 players we have on the roster might workout better for us.
TLDR: I wouldn't chase 2-4 points on a recruiting service over having a functional line that are all 86-88s, but I will still miss B Moore and Chaplin.
Chaplin had a pretty poor year and showed regression from the year before. But, he was also dealing with injuries all year. But it's pretty clear there was only modest improvement from each of the lineman from the 2023 to 2024. And for whatever reason, the entire line regressed the final 4 games of the year (sans UVA).
He's still the number 1 OL according to the industry rankings (composite score) via On3
Yes ty for citing your sources. I was going off 247
It's a shame Chaplin left before he found out who we brought in before he left (at least I assume based on the timing he didn't know). I wonder if we could have kept him if he did know?
Damn, hype train already picking up speed? We still got depth/numbers issues. Still have to get 5 ACC quality starters (we have 2ish from the portal). Still gotta coach up some guys who were given some bad habits.
BUT the fact that these two guys feel like Moore is the coach who can develop them into NFL players, so they have to follow him, indicates that we made a good hire.
I agree it's early for the hype train, but getting Altuner on board given how high a recruit he was feels like a win considering the recruiting for OL we've been having. Hopefully relationships Moore has in our footprint will mean we can pick up some good OL recruits in the future as well.
It does feel like our OL is heading in the right direction at least!
Yep - this is the most optimistic I've been about the OL since Joe Rudolph was announced.
Same on all points
In terms of 2025, I don't get any hype around the OL. Our 2 best guys left, we picked up 2 dudes from WVU- one unproven- and the rest couldn't crack a mediocre 2 deep here. Call me much less than optimistic for next year on the OL.
Wowwie wow-wow
Let's gooooooo welcome to the good guys Kyle
Yay! More pls
Moore pls.
Just not Peter Moore.
Are we paying 8m for him? If not, it's a steal! /s
My expectations were pretty low, but now I think Al-tuner in for next season now.
Nice. 🧦🧦🧦🧦
I'm getting excited
The typical offseason cycle of irrational optimism followed by crushing reality? Yep, sounds about right.
Eternal Optimism
I totally read this as "Eternal Opium"
Full circle to Eternal Hopium
And then to Eternal Copium
And then, apropos to hokie fans, eternal mopium
And further into denial with maximus Nopium.
Personally, I'll stick with the Dopium
Almost as much optimism as my dog has when the cheese drawer is opened.
This is very cool
Coach Moore to CBP:
Ghannam was pretty highly rated for OL out of WV and recruited by Moore. Maybe some solid coaching will help here too.
From the man himself
The media team needs to do a better job peeling away more of that Godforsaken jersey.
I really like his HS film. Good feet, fundamentally sound, and has a mean streak. He missed last season because of an injury, but if healthy I would be gobsmacked if he isn't the starter at center next year.
I can roll with a Rimac-Altuner-Meadows inside. That is a group that will get some movement. I expect Ghannam will get moved back out to tackle, perhaps on the right side, with Garrett on the left. Then they need to bring in people to compete with them.
4 star from one of the best high school conferences in the country as well (Good Counsel). High level competition in the WCAC.
Amazing get.
Moore has a great relationship with GC.
Someone gave Pry some good counsel in picking this OL coach.
Nice. 🧦🧦🧦
How do you feel about Lucas Austin? Altuner's roommate, he's trending towards the good guys as well. Starter or depth piece?
I mean this winter is already going better than we could have possibly hoped on the OL front. Can't say I hate it
Yeah tbh my thoughts going into the off season was our best bet was to grit our teeth and hope Crook figured out how to develop people around Chaplin. That quickly turned to depression. I'm now excited for the future of our OL.
very cool.
Are there any other WVU OL that we could hope to get?
There are three more Scholarship players, four in their class that just signed, and three walk ons. Rimac and Altuner were the highest rated. The one better OT signed with Missouri.
Scholarship Players
Justin Terry, 6'5, 330 lbs OT
Lucas Austin, 6'7, 265 lbs OT
Bryce Biggs, 6'6, 270 lbs, IOL
Signees
Eidan Buchanan
IOL (90TH)
6'9, 330 lbs
Good Counsel HS
3 🌟
Jahmir Davis
OT (79th)
6'4, 295 lbs
LaSalle HS
3 🌟
Brandon Homady
IOL (106th)
6'4, 280 lbs
Paduca Franciscan HS
3 🌟
Gavin Crawford
Guard (61st) Center (8th)
6'3, 330 lbs
Good Counsel
3 🌟
I believe the signees cannot be released because RR was hired before NSD (I maybe wrong).
I expect Austin to commit to us. Terry is a project that may or may not be worth a scholarship depending on how Moore feels about him...he's ours if we want him.
They can ask for release or go in portal in Spring window.
6'9 and 330 is just such an enormous person. Damn.
6'9"?
Those thighs look like they've been through a lot of S&C