photo by: Benjamin Powell

WVU football wide receiver John Neider goes out for a pass during the Gold-Blue Spring Festival.

MORGANTOWN — During West Virginia football’s spring game, wide receiver John Neider seemed to be a favorite target for the quarterbacks. He was targeted over the middle of the field, on a go ball to the end zone and then caught a touchdown from Max Brown at the end of the game.

Neider hadn’t been in Morgantown long, and he’s proud of the progress he’s made this spring.

“I kept developing,” Neider said. “I want to continue developing. I think I had an alright day today. Obviously, I always want better for myself. I want to keep pushing myself to be better. I think overall, everyone also had a really good spring.”

From how many times quarterbacks looked his way, Neider should be a name to know for the fall.

Neider is one of the many transfers that came in from the portal this offseason, and one of the many transfer receivers. But, Neider didn’t have the traditional route to a Power Four school, catching touchdowns for the gold and blue.

For starters, Neider played quarterback in high school, not receiver. Neider also didn’t receive a scholarship. He walked on to UConn after being named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Connecticut. Despite being awarded that honor, he wasn’t rated on recruiting sites, so walking on was the only real way to play Division I ball.

Neider walked on to UConn as a receiver and not a quarterback.

“When I walked on at UConn, I kind of told them, I want to play receiver,” Neider said. “I think I had the best shot at receiver. I started off as a receiver in my first year, lots of developing, lots of learning, and I’m still on that path of developing and learning. I still want to learn as much as I can, develop as much as I can, because I had a late start compared to everyone else. I think it’s also a good thing for me, because I got to pay extra attention to the little details to continue to develop.”

Playing quarterback helped Neider quickly transition to receiver because he could read the defense a lot easier, which is why he was open so often during the spring game.

“I still got that quarterback mindset a little bit,” Neider said. “Helps me read coverages. Helps me understand what the quarterbacks think. I keep that in the back of my mind a lot. But at the same time, I got to be a receiver out there. I got to play the game like a receiver. There’s a little bit of QB going on in the back of my head to help me out. But the majority of the time I’m in that wide receiver mode.”

Being a walk-on, Neider still had to work his way up and started on scout team special teams. He was on the scout team for the first two seasons. Neider worked hard and caught his teammates’ attention.

“The DBs were helping me out, telling the coaches, like, ‘ Get this guy out there,'” Neider said. “My teammates were vouching for me, and I got my opportunity.”

In his final year at UConn, Neider played in 13 games and started in five of them. He had 27 catches for 422 yards and two touchdowns. Neider’s quarterback background helped him throw a touchdown, too. The Huskies weren’t a bad team in 2025, like they’ve recently been. UConn went 9-4 last season.

Neider’s coach, Jim Mora, left for the Colorado State job, so Neider entered the portal.

“In the world of college football today, there’s a lot of uncertainty,” Neider said. “I didn’t want to roll the dice with someone I didn’t really know. I put my name out there, and West Virginia was one of the schools to reach out to me. I took notice of that, and they’re very kind, very compassionate to me. I liked what they were offering, so I came here.”

On Neider’s visit, he surprisingly saw offensive linemen Carsten Casady, who was his teammate on the Huskies, eating at the cafeteria. Casady was also taking a visit after entering the portal. He transferred to WVU also.

“I didn’t even know that he was on a visit until I got here,” Neider said. “I walked in the cafeteria, and he was sitting down eating, and I was like ‘What are you doing here?’ He said the same thing to me. That was kind of funny. It was just nice knowing someone else was here with me.”

Now, Neider has completed 15 practices for the Mountaineers. 15 practices at the Power Four level after walking on at UConn and playing on the scout team.

Neider hasn’t let the pressure from making the jump from scout team at the Group of Five to the Power Four get to him.

“It’s football,” Neider said. “It’s the same thing everywhere. Some people say there’s different levels, there’s levels to it. I’ve been doubted my whole life, ever since I was younger, and I just continue to prove that we’re wrong. There are levels to it, but I’ll keep raising my game to every single level.”

Neider might’ve misfired on a few catches during the spring game, but he’s definitely a player Rich Rodriguez and WVU think can make an impact this fall. Neider thinks so too.

“I’m gonna give them everything I got,” Neider said. “Leave it all out on the field, and I’m trying to get everyone around me better.”