MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — For the first time in his college career, Tony Mathis Jr. is West Virginia’s top tailback.
With senior Leddie Brown opting out of the Guaranteed Rate Bowl against Minnesota, Mathis moves up the depth chart and will be the Mountaineers’ featured back in the December 28 season finale.
“It feels good. I’m ready for it,” Mathis said. “Been working for it and we all have. Just ready to do what we plan.”
Mathis saw his role expand over the second half of the regular season after overcoming an injury in preseason camp that limited his playing time for the first six games.
In the regular season finale at Kansas, one West Virginia needed to win to become bowl eligible, Mathis got a career-high 22 carries and gained 118 yards to help the Mountaineers defeat the Jayhawks, 34-28.
“It’s a great opportunity,” WVU head coach Neal Brown said. “He’s played good football. He’s kind of gotten better and better since the bye week and he’s had some big moments. He played almost every snap in the second half of the Kansas game. Leddie hit the big run and then Tony brought it home. He’s ready. It’s a great opportunity for him and a good opportunity for [true freshman tailback ] Justin Johnson.
“It gives us a little insight into next year, so there are some positives in the situation as well — not only for Tony, but for us offensively and as a team.”
All but nine of Mathis’ 59 carries and 25 of his 256 rushing yards came over the second half of the regular season.
That wasn’t a coincidence considering a preseason injury prevented Mathis from playing in the season opener at Maryland. He carried the ball seven times for 20 yards in the home opener against Long Island and touched it twice the following week against Virginia Tech, but not again over the Mountaineers’ next three games, one of which he missed against Texas Tech because of the nagging injury.
“It was very frustrating, but you have to keep your mental good and overcome it,” Mathis said.
Following West Virginia’s only open week this season, Mathis played a pivotal role in a victory at TCU, rushing 12 times for 48 yards.
“During the bye week, I rehabbed ten times more and that was a time frame from my injury when I should be back,” Mathis said. “I wasn’t really ready during the Long Island game, but I knew after that [open week] I was going to be ready.”
Mathis had five carries in victories over Iowa State and Texas, as well as a loss to Oklahoma State.
Now the redshirt sophomore is hoping his perseverance pays off against the Golden Gophers.
“I wanted to be here so I just wanted to do what they needed me to do,” Mathis said. “I got better at everything they said was my weakness and turned it around.
“Breaking tackles, showing my ability to run routes and I did that very well. Leddie taught me a lot to put me in that position.”
While Mathis is excited about earning his first career start in the near future, he says his preparation won’t change in advance of the bowl game.
“For every team, the [No.] one and two backs so should be expecting carries,” he said. “You never know what can happen, so I always prepare myself and the team always prepares us to be ready.”
Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker says it’s that mentality that has Mathis in this position.
“He’s worked his tail off to get to this point and he got a flash of that in the last game,” Parker said. “Now to get to this point, I would hope he’d tell you nothing is going to change about his preparation — it’s just his opportunity is going to go up. When you’ve prepared the right way like Tony has, you slide right in, take a higher role and run with it. We expect him to, and I’m sure he does as well.”