Perhaps the emphasis we’ve had throughout this off-season that has seen the transfer portal explode upon the public consciousness in tandem with the creation of Name, Image, Likeness regulations that have changed the image — if not the reality — of college sportsfrom being a game to a business has been all wrong.
It has left the college sports fans of America caught up in a whirlwind of uncertainty … coaches jumping from job to job, players from team to team, college players selling everything but the family heirlooms in the name of NIL.
Never before has the cliche that ‘you can’t tell the players without a scorecard’, been so true, but what if the concentration was not on those who have given in to the lure of the grass being greener elsewhere and instead concentrated on those players who showed loyalty and appreciation and, rather than dancing down the golden brick road, stayed with the school that signed them, developed them and had faith in them?
What if we made as much out of West Virginia’s Bryce Ford-Wheaton as we do Josh Chandler-Semedo or Tykee Smith or Nicktroy Fortune, players who placed themselves above school and team, above teammates and citizens of the state that worshipped them simply because they were willing to represent West Virginia?
Ford-Wheaton is a special case, a legacy of WVU who is proud of what it represents and someone who celebrates following in footsteps laid out before him by his WVU Hall of Fame grandfather, running back and longtime administrator Garrett Ford Sr. and his uncle, Garrett Ford Jr., also a Mountaineer running back.
Before coming to WVU out of North Carolina, he had a talk with Garrett, Sr. and got some advice.
“It’s about loyalty, honestly. I kind of knew what I was signing up for when I came here with my family history. I knew what some other people do that I couldn’t do. I have kind of a different standard, especially to honor my family and keep our legacy alive,” Ford-Wheaton said.
It’s all about self-image and character.
“I believe you have to hold yourself to a high standard,” he said.
Certainly, he could have come up with any of a dozen reasons to leave. There have been coaching changes, both at the top and at his wide receiver position, where he is working with his fourth position coach. There have been ups and downs, disappointments in the productivity and in the wins and losses, all the while as those transfer portal and NIL moves changed everything about a college athlete’s life and opportunities.
It’s been like a receiver running a pattern when the quarterback begins to scramble, forcing him to improvise.
“For sure,” he said. “You never know what’s next, but make it work.”
He opted to stay with path he had laid down coming out of high school.
“It kind of reminds of a saying that’s outside (strength) coach Mike (Joseph)’s office … ‘Adapt or Perish,’” he said. “If you don’t adapt, you don’t need to be here anymore, honestly. There’s been a lot of changes since I’ve been here. I feel like I kept my promise, my commitment and rolled with the punches.”
He has rolled with them on the field and in the classroom.
“Just getting by never was a thing for me,” Ford-Wheaton said. “My mom, my whole family, is involved in academics, which is why I decided to try and get my masters in sports management, while I’m still here.
Everybody in my family who came here got two degrees. I’m trying to keep it going.”
Fittingly, he has been a member of the Garrett Ford Sr. Athletic Honor Roll.
He has developed gradually on the field, getting better each year until now, as a redshirt junior, he is expecting his best season, although he is adapting to a new offensive coordinator and to what will be a new quarterback.
Whichever of the three on hand — Garrett Greene, Will “Goose” Crowder or freshman Nicco Marchiol, or transfer J.T. Daniels — he is expected to serve as a prime target and has shown some steps forward this spring.
“A lot of work in the off-season, in the winter, Saturdays throwing with the quarterbacks to develop chemistry. That we put in a lot of work, so it’s only right we are starting to see the results from it,” he said.
A year ago he was tied for second on the team with 42 catches for 575 yards and three touchdowns. He’s concentrating on doing better on the 50-50 balls that WVU receivers have had so much trouble with over the past couple of years, not to mention the outright drops.
“I want to make the 50-50 balls 80-20,” he said. “The best way you can simulate is just doing it. If I can have a fellow receiver going up with me, fight for the ball with me, you just keep repping that. We are doing a lot of tracking the ball downfield with our new machine.
“It’s something I’ve aimed for, especially with my frame and my size. I feel it should be more of an 80-20 ball instead of 50-50.”
At 100-0, though, is Ford-Wheaton’s commitment.
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April 14, 2022 at 03:00PM
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WVU's Bryce Ford-Wheaton Shows Old School Loyalty | WVU | West Virginia Mountaineers sports coverage - Blue Gold News
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