MORGANTOWN — West Virginia and Rich Rodriguez keep loading up in the transfer portal.

LSU wide receiver TaRon Francis has committed to the Mountaineers, according to CBS Sports’ Chris Hummer. Francis picked WVU after a reported visit with Iowa State and his visit to Morgantown on Wednesday.

Francis was a highly recruited 4-star prospect out of high school, the 7th-best player in Louisiana and the 21st-best in the class at the time. Francis appeared in five games his true freshman season and didn’t register a stat.

The Tigers have received a major overhaul. Brian Kelly was fired during the middle of the season and was replaced by Lane Kiffin. Francis transferred out, looking to play elsewhere.

The former 4-star hasn’t done much in his first year, but has a lot of eligibility left, and is a nice piece of raw clay for the Mountaineers to mold in years to come. He’s 6-foot-1, 205 pounds, and has a lot of speed, running track in high school.

This isn’t the first Power Four wide receiver the Mountaineers have added this cycle. USC wide receiver Prince Strachan committed to WVU on Sunday. He’s another receiver who didn’t play much at his previous school, but has a lot of talent.

WVU needed to revamp the receiver room. The Mountaineers lost almost every pass catcher from 2025 to the portal or graduation. Leading receiver Cam Vaughn left, which was a surprise, and a bunch of other depth receivers also left. Rodriguez has now added three receivers in this cycle.

Francis is another one of the many younger players Rodriguez has added. Rodriguez wants to build the program from the ground up and is taking chances on less proven players to hopefully develop them into stars.