WVU Cracks Top Four for 2027 OL After Unforgettable Backyard Brawl Visit

The Backyard Brawl produced not only a win in the win column for the West Virginia Mountaineers in 2025, but it scored some victories on the recruiting trail as well. No commitments came from the weekend, but the recruits who were in attendance for the game walked away super impressed with the program, the atmosphere, and everything else WVU had to offer.

One of those recruits, 2027 offensive lineman Jaiden Lindsay, told West Virginia On SI that the visit bumped WVU into his top four schools. "WVU is definitely one of my top schools. It boosted my interest a lot. I didn’t really know much about WVU before the weekend. It was definitely an eye-opening experience."

The other three he's heavily considering? Maryland, Penn State, and Virginia Tech. He was on hand for Maryland's season opener and took a visit to Penn State back in the spring. Considering he still has another year of recruiting left, Lindsay will likely take his time and will almost certainly make another stop back in Morgantown before he makes his decision.

Kent State, Ohio, Pitt, South Florida, Syracuse, and Toledo have also offered the 6'3", 275-pound product from Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olney, Maryland.

Our Lady of Good Counsel created a nice pipeline to WVU with the previous regime, sending multiple linemen to Morgantown. Now, Jack Bicknell Jr. and Rich Rodriguez are trying to do the same thing.

West Virginia's offensive line is off to a rather slow start this season, but that's not on coaching or lack of development. This is what happens when you have five brand new starters, each of whom hails from a different offensive background. It's going to take time for that unit to gel. Bicknell has had a lot of success throughout his coaching career developing players, so while it may not look all that great now, just give it time. Once he gets high school kids in the program and gets his hands on them, that room will be night and day better in a couple of years.