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Flipping from Arizona to West Virginia

West Virginia received a couple of nice surprises on Wednesday’s signing day when junior college players Brandon Golson (linebacker) and Mario Alford (receiver) switched from Arizona to West Virginia, following new WVU assistant Tony Gibson.

Golson and Alford’s head coach at Georgia Military College, Bert Williams, was a guest on Friday’s MetroNews Statewide Sportsline.

Brandon Golson

“The relationship they had built with Tony (Gibson) was the biggest thing,” Williams said. “It’s a great program, obviously. Our guys know about the quality of that program and they knew Tony. He got them to come visit and it’s hard not to like what you all have going up there in Morgantown.”

Of the two, the decision to flip to West Virginia was a little more weighing on Alford.

“I think Mario (Alford) warred with it up until the last day or two before (signing day),” Williams said. “When it all came down to it, I think it was a little bit easier for his mom to get up to (Morgantown) and that kind of pushed him over the edge.”

While Golson and Alford will be playing on opposite sides of the ball at WVU, speed is a common attribute they’ll both bring to the field.

Mario Alford

“I think Mario would be one of the fastest guys, I would think, in college football,” Williams said. “He is a true 4.3-flat guy – a lot of people say it, but not many are. I mean he can really go and he goes from whoa to go in a heartbeat. It doesn’t take him a long time to get to that top speed and he’s shown that time and time again.

“Really, Brandon is the same way,” Williams continued. “Most of the time he would run with our secondary when we would do conditioning drills and things of that nature. He truly has DB speed in a linebacker body and he’s good when the ball is coming at him. On the back side, he’s going to cover ground a lot faster than people are going to expect when they see him out there.”

You can watch the complete interview with Williams above.

 







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