Former Pitt running back Malik Newton has a new football home.
The former three-star running back from Virginia announced that he’s joining West Virginia State, a Division II program near Charleston.
Newton was a member of Pitt’s Class of 2021, but was placed on the medically disqualified list by the Pitt doctors at the start of spring practice. Following that decision by Pitt, Newton decided to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal.
When asked about the reason for making Newton medically disqualified, Pat Narduzzi said, “I’m not going to get into what it is. But I feel bad for Malik and his family. You come mid-year to college, you think you are going to play football. We got some of the greatest doctors in the world in Pittsburgh, and they find out some things that are not going to allow him to play football at Pitt.”
Newton was one of the big gets of Pitt’s recruiting class as Chris Beatty led the charge to land him over other programs like Clemson, Penn State, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Virginia Tech and West Virginia.
West Virginia State reached the Mountain East Championship game in 2019 and played only 4 games last season because of COVID-19.
