MORGANTOWN, W.VA. — Even as West Virginia aims to capitalize on a rare banner year for in-state football talent, Saturday’s news that Spring Valley offensive lineman Riley Locklear committed to Tennessee was a disappointment Mountaineers coaches anticipated.
“Locklear’s family are big Marshall people, and his brother plays there, so he didn’t grow up a WVU fan,” said Rivals recruiting writer Keenan Cummings of WVSports.com.
“That was always going to be an uphill battle. Odds were he was never coming to West Virginia. He apparently was going to FSU or Tennessee.”
Indeed, 247Sports analysts gave Florida State a 57 percent chance of landing Locklear, followed by Tennessee and Penn State.