Preston Fox's journey to the place he's at now is not a normal one.
In 2020 Fox was a walk-on fighting for any opportunity he could get. Flash forward to 2024, Fox, a Morgantown native, was a starter and on scholarship as WVU kicked off against Penn State.
"My first goal was to earn a scholarship but being a key role is something I worked up to and worked hard for," Fox said.
Last season Fox had 26 catches for 368 yards and two touchdowns. On Saturday against Penn State Fox was WVU's leading receiver grabbing two passes for 41 yards.
"When I go out there I try to be as confident as I can, not really think too much because people think too much and then it gets them all anxious and nervous about it. I just kind of go out there and don't think about it at all and take reps as I do in practice, very consistent with that," Fox said.
Fox's growth within the West Virginia program has allowed him to step into a leadership role as well as become more mature in the process.
"Personally I just think as a leader I need to hold them better accountable and we didn't play up to our standard and we got to be better in the upcoming weeks, which we will," Fox said.
Fox believes the offense and the wide receiver room will continue to get better despite their showing against Penn State in week one. Fox took accountability for some of the shortcomings of WVU's offense, showing his maturity as an older guy on the offense.
"Things happen in games like that, you can't blame anybody for anything. You just got to move forward and try to get the next drive. Things happen," Fox said.
Fox said while the loss is not the outcome they wanted, his teammates are continuing to push forward this week.
"You just got to stay positive. In situations like that, it's hard, it sucks going into the weekend and everybody's really upset but once you get to the new week you know you have another game. It's a long season, you got to stay positive," Fox said.
Fox and the Mountaineers will be back in action on Saturday when they host UAlbany at Milan Puskar Stadium with kickoff set for 6:00 p.m.
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