MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Tony Mathis Jr.'s moment has finally arrived.
West Virginia University's sophomore running back from Orlando, Florida, by way of Cedartown High in Cedartown, Georgia, moves into the starting role for the Guaranteed Rate Bowl now that senior Leddie Brown has announced his intension to skip the game and begin preparing for his NFL career.
Therefore, one door closing means another door opens.
"I'm just ready for it," Mathis Jr. said last Friday afternoon. "I've been working for it – we all have – so I'm just ready to do what we plan."
Mountaineer quarterback Jarret Doege believes Mathis is ready for the challenge.
"I'm a big fan of Tony. I think he's one of the hardest workers, if not one of the hardest, on the football team," Doege said. "He's put a lot of work in each offseason I've been with him, and I would say that's probably something you all don't know about him is that he's one of the hardest on the team. For him to get his chance, I'm super-excited for him, and I believe in him very much."
So does his coach, Neal Brown, who also took some time Friday afternoon to salute Leddie Brown's outstanding four-year career that saw him finish sixth in school history with 2,888 rushing yards and eighth with 27 touchdowns.
"I love Leddie Brown. I think he was an extremely tough competitor for us, especially the last two seasons," Neal Brown said. "Leddie had to play more snaps than we really would have wanted him to play, especially earlier in the year because we lacked some depth at the running back position. Tony was coming back from injury and we didn't feel the other guys were ready at that point.
"I'm understanding of him. I thought he handled that really well what he wrote, I thought it was well-done, and he's a guy that loves West Virginia and I'm understanding of his decision," Brown said.
Pivoting to Mathis, the fourth-year coach believes it's a great opportunity for him to show Mountaineer Nation what he can do.
"He played almost every snap in the second half of the Kansas game. Leddie hit the big run and Tony brought it home, so he's ready," Brown said. "It's a great opportunity for him, and it's a good opportunity for (true freshman) Justin Johnson. It gives us a little insight into next year, so I think there are some positives in the situation – not only for Tony but for us offensively and for us as a team."
Mathis came to West Virginia as a three-star prospect out of Cedartown High, the same high school that produced Cleveland Browns running back Nick Chubb, and Tony counts Chubb as a close friend.
"We are tight," Mathis said. "He had an injury during his college career that was way worse than mine and he overcame it. He helped me a lot and told me to stay strong, 'It can't rain every day.'"The two shared the same trainer in high school who imparted upon them the wisdom to always fight through any adversity that you face. Mathis said it helped Chubb get through a serious injury when he played at Georgia, and it has also helped him become a better running back since his arrival at WVU.
That's why last spring when Mathis was buried deep on the depth chart, fighting for carries with A'Varius Sparrow, he chose to jump into his work to become a better football player instead of jumping into the transfer portal. He asked running backs coach Chad Scott what he needed to improve, faced those blunt truths head on and worked hard to fix them.
"This is home for me and my family. It's the reason I wanted to stay and fix all of my wrongs," Mathis explained.
A preseason injury kept Tony out of the season-opening loss to Maryland, and he also missed the Texas Tech game, but he has progressively gotten better since the Baylor game. He got 12 carries for 48 yards in a road win at TCU and really emerged in the second half of the Kansas victory.
Following Leddie Brown's 44-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter, Mathis got the rest of the running back snaps and finished with a career-high 118 yards on 22 carries.
His 45-yard run where he broke several tackles was a thing of beauty.
"It felt very good; it was a relief," Mathis said of his Kansas performance. "I felt my teammates helped me a lot going through this process because they knew how hard I worked."
Now, he will be facing a very stiff challenge when he goes up against a Minnesota defense that ranks ninth in the country, allowing just 100.2 yards per game. The Golden Gophers have not permitted more than 277 yards of total offense in each of their final six games of the regular season.
"They're pretty physical," Mathis said. "Our O-line is pretty physical as well so we're ready for a dogfight."
Offensive coordinator Gerad Parker said he's proud of Mathis' growth as a player, and he's certain Tony will be ready to go when he steps on Chase Field to face the Golden Gophers on Tuesday, Dec. 28.
"The good thing for Tony is he won't be surprised by it," Parker explained. "He's worked his tail off to get to this point and he got a flash of that in the last game. There is nothing that's going to change about his preparation; it's just that his opportunities are going to go up.
"When you prepare like Tony has now he just slides right in and takes a higher role and runs with it. We expect him to and I'm sure he does as well," he said.
For Mathis, he doesn't view the Guaranteed Rate Bowl as an ending to the 2021 season, but rather a beginning to his West Virginia Mountaineer football career.
West Virginia's bowl prep work began on Saturday, Dec. 11, resumed on Wednesday, Dec. 15 and continued through last Saturday morning. The players were given yesterday, today and tomorrow off and then will resume bowl prep on Wednesday, Dec. 22.
The team is scheduled to depart for Phoenix on Christmas day and will continue preparations on-site Sunday and Monday before Tuesday night's game.
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December 21, 2021 at 01:00AM
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WVU's Mathis Jr. Ready For His Moment - West Virginia University Athletics - WVU Athletics
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