MORGANTOWN — West Virginia true freshman Matt Sieg arrives at the practice building at 6:30 a.m. and is on the Jugs machine. He’s catching balls, preparing to play on offense. Later in the afternoon, when WVU has practice, Sieg is making leaping plays, as seen on social media, on defense as a defensive back.

“Matt’s obviously a phenomenal athlete and even better person,” defensive coordinator Zac Alley said. “I mean, just world-class. Everything he does is at a really, really, really high standard.”

Sieg’s commitment to WVU was one of the biggest stories of the early National Signing Day period. The Mountaineers weren’t a finalist and weren’t even listed on the CBS Sports graphic. Local schools Penn State, Pitt, Indiana and Virginia Tech were the options. But when he unzipped his pullover, it showed the flying WV. The Mountaineers’ late push the day before secured the 4-star.

“We weren’t sure we were in it, and we tried to be,” Rodriguez said in December. “Then there’s a little bit of a crack in there, again, what happened up there. We got a chance to stay in it.”

Sieg was a highly coveted recruit because he’s an all-around athlete. He was the first player in WPIAL history to register 5,000 yards rushing and 3,000 yards passing for his career. Sieg was also named as a first-team defensive back and had four interceptions, returning two for touchdowns. He was listed as the No. 16 safety in the class and the fifth player in Pennsylvania.

However, most thought he’d play defensive back at the next level. During Rodriguez’s early signing press conference, Rodriguez said Sieg would definitely play both ways over his career at WVU. Sieg enrolled early and is participating in spring practice. Rodriguez stayed true to his claim and has already been experimenting with him at multiple positions.

“One day, we had them doing some skill development,” Rodriguez said. “We had him running some routes or something out of the backfield. We’ll continue to do that.”

Rodriguez also mentioned Sieg will probably be a kick and punt returner. Sieg could take snaps at quarterback on certain packages, too. Most of Sieg’s offensive production came at QB, and he was named first-team quarterback in high school. Playing quarterback for WVU might come a little later down the line.

“There might even be some quarterback stuff because he’s pretty good at that,” Sieg said. “But that’s the hardest because you’ve got to know everything. You got cadence and all that kind of stuff. You’re responsible for a lot of stuff. We don’t want to overwhelm him.”

Through the first couple of practices, Sieg is taking most of his reps at safety, learning Alley’s defense because that’s where he’s expected to have his biggest role. He might not start right away in the secondary, but Rodriguez isn’t ruling anything out and said it’s easier for true freshmen to be Day 1 starters with spring ball.

“He’s figuring to play such a big role for us on defense,” Rodriguez said. “He’s kind of concentrated on that. But probably towards the end of the spring, we’ll take a day or two and have him play some offense because he’s a good enough athlete to help us in a lot of ways.”

No matter where Sieg is playing, the coaching staff has been impressed with what they’ve seen through the first couple of practices, in meetings and in workouts. He’s still a freshman, though, and is learning.

“He does it all, does everything,” Alley said. “He’s a heck of a football player. He’s getting the freshman learning curve going, too. But you can see that he’s got real ability and is a very natural, sensational kid.”