Today’s video brings the fourth installment in the MetroNews countdown of the 10 Most Pivotal Mountaineers for the 2015 football season. These aren’t necessarily West Virginia’s “best” 10, or the ones appearing on those bloated preseason watch lists. But they’re the players whose production will hold answers to the biggest preseason questions.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Rushel Shell’s first game at West Virginia produced 38 yards on 10 carries … and one huge compliment from Alabama’s Nick Saban.
“That guy is a good runner, and you’re going to know it before this year is over,” Saban said after Alabama’s 33-23 win in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff.
Shell subsequently led West Virginia with 788 yards rushing and might have eclipsed 1,000 if not for a high ankle injury that limited him to 16 carries during a four-game midseason stretch.
He expects to enter camp a few pounds leaner than last year, hoping to show more burst on breakaway runs. From Shell’s 176 carries during 2014, only three exceeded 20 yards. That included a 54-yard career-long touchdown against Iowa State.
During late June, when West Virginia was in the heat of summer conditioning, Shell said he felt like he “was back in high school,” and everyone knows how dominant a runner he was back at Hopewell High.
“I just feel the best I have ever felt in my life—speed, conditioning and strength-wise. I feel it’s going to help me this year, help me show who I really am on the football field.”