Rodriguez Drops Surprising News That Another WVU Running Back is Currently Ineligible

Entering fall camp, the West Virginia running back room appeared to be one of the deepest position groups on paper. Having Jahiem White back certainly is enough of a reason to be excited about the room, but four others — Jaylan Knighton, Tye Edwards, Kannon Katzer, and Cyncir Bowers — have all rushed for over 1,000 yards in their career.

Unfortunately, the group has been a bit banged up at the start of fall camp, and once again, head coach Rich Rodriguez informed the media that he only had two running backs at his disposal, Jahiem White and Diore Hubbard.

Edwards is among the four players who are taking their eligibility fight to the courts with a hearing set for August 19th. The Northern Iowa transfer would likely serve as the short-yardage back, given his 6'2", 225-pound frame.

What we didn't know was that SMU transfer Jaylan Knighton is also considered ineligible at this time. Rodriguez dropped that news during Thursday's press conference, but did not go into detail as to why. He played the first three years of his career at Miami, one of which he gets back due to the pandemic in 2020.

Following the 2022 season, he followed his offensive coordinator, Rhett Lashlee, to SMU, where he was named the next head coach. He played in 12 games there in 2023, but only appeared in two games in 2024 due to a season-ending knee injury. From a years-of-eligibility standpoint, everything seems to check out. He has a COVID year to use and a redshirt he can use. Given that he never used a non-medical redshirt, there should be no controversy. He should have one year of eligibility remaining.

In the meantime, Rodriguez is going to continue browsing the portal for help, although whoever he adds will be drinking out of a firehose trying to learn the offense in such a short period of time. Rodriguez also revealed during Thursday's presser that the team is hoping to add former Jacksonville State running back Andre Devine, the son of Noel, to the roster.

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