Former Morgantown standout Preston Fox hauls in a catch last Saturday in West Virginia’s win over Duquesne in Morgantown. (Photo provided by BlueGoldNews.com)

MORGANTOWN — Back in 2019, shortly after he left West Virginia to take the head football coaching job at Houston, Dana Holgorsen sat down with Sports Illustrated and gave an interview trying to explain why he would leave a Power 5 school for what was then a Group of 5 school.

The conversation turned to his reliance on transfer students rather than on high school recruits, especially high school recruits from within his own state.

His reply hit a nerve.

“We weren’t going to get high school kids at West Virginia that we were going to win the Big 12 with,” he proclaimed.

While this could be taken as a general statement covering all high school students, the locals, as they are wont to do in a state which gets credit for very little, was seen as a knock upon in-state high school students and on the state of high school football in West Virginia.

This being four years ago, one may think that it’s time to let go of the statement, but if ever it needs to be brought up it is now for here, in 2023, WVU not only will take the field in the 106th renewal of the Backyard Brawl against Pitt at 7:30 p.m. this Saturday night, but the Mountaineers later this season will travel to Houston to face Holgorsen’s Cougars.

The echoes of Holgorsen’s statement are reverberating through the halls of the Puskar Center for, if anything, his successor, Neal Brown, has doubled down on his in-state recruitment and found West Virginia to be a growing source of talent to help lead the Mountaineers out of the woods in which Holgorsen abandoned them.

It rose to the forefront this Saturday past when virtually out of nowhere a West Virginian from Martinsburg, Hudson Clement, found out just minutes before game time that he would start at wide receiver despite being a walk-on and grasped the opportunity by the throat with three touchdown receptions on five receptions that covered 177 yards.

WVU’s other passing touchdown came on a throw from Garrett Greene to former Morgantown High star Preston Fox, who also returned punts.

Add that to an All-American center in Zach Frazier and two other top-line offensive linemen in Doug Nester and Wyatt Milum, both potential NFL draft picks, and a preseason All-Big 12 defensive tackle in Sean Martin and you have a strong group to come out of West Virginia high schools.

How did this happen, especially in the years just after the Stills brothers — Dante and Darius –exited the scene for professional careers?

“A lot of it was timing,” Neal Brown admitted. “We were fortunate. I don’t know if we’ll ever have three elite offensive linemen that can start at the same time. We’ve been really fortunate with that, and I’ll be the first to admit that.”

But it is more, perhaps best exemplified by Clement’s stunning debut.

“The walk on program goes way before me, but there’s a long, long history of West Virginia kids walking on and earning scholarships and playing a lot of football.”

Brown has elevated it to the point that one of the highlights of a season is when he gathers his team and surprises a walk-on or two, normally with their families present in the locker room, by presenting a scholarship.

This event was held moments after Saturday’s victory over Duquesne had been accomplished, with Clement’s family not taking part in the festivities but with his mother soon in tears when he informed her of the scholarship by phone.

“I like to do it when you bring the family in,” Brown said Monday. “That makes it more special. Those are really good moments and you like to share them. I like them to be kind of spontaneous.”

They are moments that kids and their families cherish and relive throughout their lives.

But it is more than just a fun moment.

“People need to understand, we talk about production all the time, but when you have production, I think you need to be rewarded. I just thought it was the right time the other night.”

Seeing Clement’s performance made you wonder if, perhaps, he had been victimized by the kind of thinking Holgorsen was leaning upon in his comment.

“Hudson was underrecruited. For whatever reason, he was underrecruited,” Brown said when asked how he wound up being just an invited walk on. “Sometimes when you get guys like that, you worry what’s the deficiency.

“Well, we learned really early that he could run. He’s probably second fastest in our room. He ran 22.7 the other day on a GPS unit, and that’s flying. If he can run, and he has a work ethic, and he already had ball skills and was well coached in Martinsburg.

“We knew that and we have this Monday Night Football where we let kids play and he was making plays every time we did it. He made plays here and there in fall camp. It wasn’t consistent, but you knew he had talent.”

And so, when Devin Carter was injured and wasn’t allowed to go Saturday, and his backup was out with injury, Brown didn’t hesitate to give Clement his chance.

Brown is mining more than coal in his state.

“If you can have a minimum of your roster as West Virginia kids, then that’s a really good makeup. A lot of those kids, if they stay and continue to play, they will earn scholarships. If you figure there will be two to four Power 5 kids in the state every year and you get them, then you will be there.”

And now with Pitt staring WVU in the face, Brown says that’s important.

“Those kids, I don’t have to go in and tell Doug Nester about the Backyard Brawl; I’m not telling Zach Frazier about the Backyard Brawl; I’m not telling Hudson Clement. There’s kids from other places that know about the rivalry, but there’s some education that goes in there.

“This is a unique situation. You are truly playing for the state and there’s this real close identification between the state and university, so those guys get it that are from here. They are able to communicate that to their teammates more than I can because they lived it growing up.”

The in-state players carry the pride of the state and understand the relationship with the people.

“It’s meant everything,” Frazier said earlier this year. “Growing up in Fairmont, you group up watching WVU and coming to games. It’s what I’ve always dreamed of. It’s been really special.”

And beating Pitt certainly would make it more special, especially after letting last year’s renewal of the rivalry slip through the Mountaineers fingers.