MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia will attempt to prolong hopes for bowl eligibility when it welcomes Texas at noon Saturday for its final home game of the season.
It will mark the final game in Morgantown for at least several Mountaineers, included among them the team’s top tackler — senior linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo.
Chandler confirmed during Tuesday’s media availability this will be his final contest at Milan Puskar Stadium and said he hadn’t given much thought to returning and exercising a free year of eligibility as a result of the pandemic.
Three years ago, Chandler-Semedo, then a true freshman, recalled West Virginia’s seniors preparing for their final home game against Oklahoma when a spot in the Big 12 Conference title game was on the line.
“It’s gone by fast. I remember David Long and Dravon Askew-Henry’s senior day,” he said. “It was the Oklahoma game my freshman year — one of the biggest games I’ve played in. Definitely going to be some emotions. I remember seeing those guys filled with emotion and I didn’t really get it at that point being that young, but being a lot older, you pour a lot into a program.
“You’ve been through some rough times and been through some good times, memories with teammates and stuff like that. I feel it’s all going to hit me at one point, but 20 minutes later, you have to go out and play a game, so you can’t let it hit you too much.”
Chandler-Semedo will almost certainly finish his last season at WVU as the team’s top tackler. He has 84 stops to this point, including 52 unassisted tackles, with four tackles for loss, one sack and a forced fumble.
With linebacker Exree Loe sidelined for the remainder of the season and linebacker Lance Dixon “highly questionable” to face the Longhorns according to head coach Neal Brown, Chandler-Semedo and Deshawn Stevens could be the Mountaineers’ only two scholarship players available at that position.
Loe’s injury forces Chandler-Semedo to move from mike to will linebacker, a position he played prior to this season.
“Not really a tough transition. The positions aren’t really that much different,” Chandler-Semedo said. “I played both for the last two years, so I’m pretty comfortable with doing it if needed.”
Chandler graduated last year and is now working on his MBA. Throughout his career at West Virginia, Chandler-Semedo endured several challenges and a changing landscape throughout college football he likely would’ve never imagined after wrapping up his prep career at Canton McKinley High School in Canton, Ohio.
Before the start of his sophomore season, Brown replaced Dana Holgorsen as head coach. Since then, the transfer portal has become commonplace for college athletes, who no longer have to sit for a year when moving from one Division I program to another.
Chandler-Semedo also played half of his four seasons at West Virginia through the pandemic and the most recent one after the NCAA adopted a policy allowing athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness.
“Coming out, people were saying college is continually going to progress, but it hit fast,” Chandler-Semedo said. “The transfer portal is like free agency now. NIL, you can make money just like you can in the pros. coaches get hired, coaches get fired. it’s really sporadic. I’ve been through five different position coaches and I’ve been here four years. I’ve been through six coaches, because of the whole thing with [former WVU defensive coordinator Vic Koenning]. That kind of shook up some coaches.
“But it’s crazy. The one thing that’s consistent is football — the game and your teammates. You have to lean more on that. I remember saying after the coaching staff change, I came to West Virginia to play for my teammates. I didn’t necessarily come to play for coaches, so I’m playing for the fan base, playing for my teammates. That’s been the most consistent thing, so it kind of keeps you more level and trying not to focus on everything going on outside.”
The 5-foot-10, 226-pound senior has led vocally and with his play in his final go-around at WVU.
While the team’s 4-6 record to this point isn’t what Chandler-Semedo wished for, he’s hopeful his Mountaineer career can end on a positive note with games left against Texas and at Kansas.
“It’s probably more important than anything,” Chandler-Semedo said. “What I said before TCU [about needing to turn the season around], and things went great for two weeks, and then things didn’t go as good for two weeks. I’m still in that same mindset.
“We have two very winnable games and two games we should win. If we don’t get that done, I don’t really know what else to do, but I’m not even thinking in that mindset. These are two must-win games that we should win.”