MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two-way lineman Alec Shriner of Oviedo, Fla., committed to West Virginia, where coaches project him at nose guard.
The 6-foot-3, 290-pounder, who became the 12th commitment for West Virginia’s 2015 class, plays at the same high school that produced 2014 signee Tyree Owens.
Shriner has not received a star rating from Rivals but holds offers from South Florida, Navy, UMass, Florida International and Florida Atlantic.
“Shriner has the size and lateral quickness to play nose guard although many schools had targeted him for offensive line,” said Rivals senior writer Keenan Cummings, who originally reported the commitment via WVSports.com. “He won MVP at last year’s WVU camp and has a background in wrestling, which helps him with leverage in the trenches.”
West Virginia’s interest in Shriner clearly seems to be on the defensive side, considering the recruiting attention he received from Joe DeForest, Tom Bradley and Tony Gibson.
He’s the first interior defensive line commitment for the Mountaineers in this class. Morgantown High School tight end Stone Wolfley, committed since July 2013, is a three-star prospect who’s projected to move to defensive end in college.
West Virginia’s current two-deep along the three defensive line positions includes two seniors (Dontrill Hyman and Shaquille Riddick), two juniors (Kyle Rose and Eric Kinsey) and two sophomores (Christian Brown and Darrien Howard). So there’s a strong drive to replenish.
“You’ll see some more defensive linemen in this class,” Cummings said. “It’s an area that needs to be recruited every year.”
Among other defensive line targets, West Virginia remains in strong contention for three-star prospect Reuben Jones (6-4, 225) of Lakeland, Fla., who holds offers from Illinois, Duke, Iowa State, Wake Forest and Marshall.
The Mountaineers are up against Virginia, Maryland, Boston College and UConn for three-star Channing Hames (6-5,250) of Arlington, Va., while battling higher-profile programs for several four-star prospects—nose guards Neville Gallimore (6-3, 303) of St. Catherines, Ontario, and Tim Settle (6-2, 307) of Manassas, Va., and defensive end Darius Fullwood (6-4, 229) of Olney, Md.