The West Virginia football team picked up a nice commitment from the college football transfer portal on Monday as running back Jaylan Knighton is coming to play for the Mountaineers. Knighton is gearing up for his sixth season of college football as he started his career at Miami back in 2020. He spent three years with the Hurricanes before entering the transfer portal for the first time and landing at SMU. After two years with the Mustangs, he decided to enter the portal again, and West Virginia will be his next stop.

“SMU RB Jaylan Knighton has signed with West Virginia, @mzenitz and I have learned for @247Sports,” Matt Zenitz said in a post. “Knighton has run for 1,981 yards and 17 TDs in his career between time at Miami and with the Mustangs. He ran for 745 yards on 5.5 ypc in 2023.”

West Virginia is getting one of the most experienced players in college football as Jaylan Knighton has been getting significant playing time ever since his first year at Miami. During the 2020 season, he carried the football 52 times and racked up 209 yards and one touchdown.

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Knighton continued to improve throughout his career with the Hurricanes as he ran for 561 yards and eight touchdowns during the 2021 season. He finished with only 423 during the 2022 season, but that was on about half the amount of carries as 2021. Knighton averaged 5.4 yards per carry during his junior year.

After three seasons at Miami, Knighton made the move to SMU. He had the best season of his career in 2023 as he ran the ball 136 times for 745 yards and seven touchdowns while averaging 5.5 YPC. Knighton was unfortunately only to play in two games last season, however, and he ran the ball just 12 times. He went down with a knee injury early in the season and had to miss the entire year, but he should be good to go for the 2025 West Virginia football season.

Jaylan Knighton has put together some productive seasons at the power four level, and he is bringing a ton of experience to West Virginia. He could end up being a very valuable weapon for the Mountaineers during the 2025 season.