MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — There were times over the course of the 2021 and 2022 seasons where it would only have been fair to wonder if Jaylen Anderson was ever going to make much of an impact at West Virginia.
Labeled a four-star recruit by several national services, Anderson got a later than expected start to his college football career due to issues within the NCAA Clearinghouse that prevented him from enrolling at WVU until September 2021.
“I wasn’t in the best shape when I got here and I still had some maturing to do on and off the field,” Anderson admits.
Anderson would use that season to redshirt, while Leddie Brown was the Mountaineers’ primary ball carrier in what proved to be his final collegiate campaign.
“When I got here, it was the Leddie Brown era,” Anderson said. “I had him to kind of learn from him, and Tony Mathis and Justin Johnson did a good job helping me get ready and doing whatever they could for me.
“It was difficult, but those guys and [running backs coach Chad Scott] and all of the coaching staff did a good job helping me.”
In 2022, then-true freshman CJ Donaldson emerged as a reliable option at tailback during a season-opening loss at Pittsburgh, a trend that continued before Donaldson suffered a season-ending injury in late October. Still, Mathis and Johnson began the season in front of Anderson, and combined with Donaldson, comprised the team’s top three tailbacks.
Anderson remained undeterred.
“I would always have spurts of success,” Anderson said, “but I always knew once I put my head down and locked in that I could do anything I put my mind to.”
Still, following a loss to TCU, the contest that Donaldson suffered his season-ending injury in, Anderson had rushed only nine times for 39 yards, and all but three carries and 6 yards came in a runaway win over FCS opponent Towson.
The next week, in a loss at Iowa State, Anderson did not carry the ball. Yet with Mathis battling nagging injuries over the second half of the season and Donaldson sidelined, Anderson’s role increased down the stretch of his redshirt freshman season. He gained 12 yards on four carries in a victory over Oklahoma and followed it up the next week with 69 yards on seven rushes, including a career-long run of 23 yards to that point, during a loss to Kansas State.
Then came the highlight of Anderson’s career, a game that sent him into the offseason with no shortage of confidence.
With the Mountaineers playing for nothing more than pride in their season finale at Oklahoma State, Anderson led the way in a win, rushing 15 times for 155 yards with two touchdowns in a driving rainstorm. Anderson’s first score came on a 54-yard run, and he followed it up on the next possession with a 57-yard scamper to the end zone, giving him new career-high long carries twice in a span of three touches.
“It really showed me that I’m ready for this and that once I lock in, I can do what I want,” Anderson said. “It gave me a lot of confidence and a lot of hope moving forward.”
On both TD runs, Anderson took a handoff from quarterback Nicco Marchiol out of a shotgun set and let his blocks develop before finding a hole. On the second scoring run in particular, Anderson showed a surplus of patience.
“It still seems surreal. It felt like the game slowed down and I just felt really comfortable and I felt like I played faster,” Anderson said. “I felt like I’d been there before.”
The breakout effort against the Cowboys enabled Anderson to be named Co-Big 12 Newcomer of the Week and upped his season numbers to 35 carries for 275 yards.
With Donaldson back at full strength and Mathis and Johnson also returning, the Mountaineers are comfortable with no less than four tailbacks having an important role.
That includes Anderson, and with Scott being promoted to offensive coordinator, there’s an expectation that West Virginia’s running backs will be an even more featured part of the team’s offense.
“It’s been awesome. He’s using the running backs more. Putting us in space more, so it’s been pretty fun and he’s given us more freedom,” Anderson said.
There’s hope and belief that WVU’s running backs will become more of a factor in the team’s passing game, which head coach Neal Brown sees as at least somewhat of a natural transition for players like Donaldson and Anderson, due to their pass-catching prowess at the prep level.
“The easy thing on that is CJ has ball skills and can play receiver. Jaylen Anderson, they used him a bunch in empty, so he caught the ball a lot in high school,” Brown said. “Jaylen has a basketball background and I think that’s really good for hand-eye coordination. He was an above average basketball player and very seldom do you see an above average basketball player that struggles catching the ball.”
Anderson, who had one catch for 15 yards last season, is welcoming the opportunity to be more involved through the air.
“It gives me more versatility and I can show off what I can do with and without the ball,” Anderson said. “Definitely going to be excited catching more passes and hopefully mixing it up will make us a better team and a better offense.”