West Virginia football first-year wide receivers coach Ryan Garrett is familiar with recruiting to just about every level of football.
Garrett met his current head coach Rich Rodriguez while working at an SEC program in Ole Miss, but has followed him to programs that have played at both the Group of 5 level in the FBS and the FCS. In addition, he's also spent time coaching at the Division 2 level under Rodriguez's former player John Pennington.
But aside from his time as a low-level assistant at Ole Miss, most of the programs he's coached with haven't necessarily had quite the level of attraction to potential prospects as a Big 12 program like WVU brings to the table.
During a Thursday press conference, Garrett touched upon some of the differences he felt are pretty distinct between recruiting at the smaller college level compared to the Power 5 level.
"I think the biggest difference is that I can get a response from just about anybody being West Virginia," Garrett said. "When we were at Jax State, sometimes I'd be chasing those top guys, and you get a lot of unread messages. You always shoot your shot. But everybody knows the WV."
WVU WR coach Ryan Garrett on differences recruiting at Jacksonville State compared to West Virginia: "I think the biggest difference is I can get a response from anyone being at West Virginia."
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) March 13, 2025
Garrett first remembers learning how prominent and ubiquitous the West Virginia brand was when coaching under Pennington at Division 2 program West Virginia State.
"It's probably something I didn't realize was so important until I worked at West Virginia State," Garrett said. "[Charleston] is not right down the road, but being there -- every restaurant you go in, every Walmart you go in, anywhere you go. You see that flying WV symbol. Specifically in this region I think that carries a lot of weight, that's something I take a lot of pride in, and I think it's a national brand as well."
Garrett also sees a ton of perks to Rodriguez's connections with former coaches and players now prominent in national media, like former WVU kicker Pat McAfee and former WVU assistant and Alabama head coach Nick Saban, who both work with ESPN.
"Obviously with Pat and ESPN and all those guys pushing Coach Rodriguez and his return, I think everyone is seeing that right now, so we've been able to get ahold of recruits," Garrett said. "We're not always going to chase the guys that are the highest rated, we're looking for out type of guy."