Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene is shown on the run.

MORGANTOWN — In any football season, the opening of fall camp is almost like the first page of a James Patterson or John Grisham thriller.

You go into it with certain expectations, but it always provides twists and turns that lead you down paths you don’t expect, unable to put the book down as you wonder where it is going.

So it is with football seasons and this one at West Virginia is no different. As the players marched onto the field for the first time Wednesday morning the pages of a 13-game season were blank, the plot still to be written.

Plots and subplots were sure to emerge as the year went on. Would Garrett Greene take the big jump he is looking for in passing efficiency? Will someone fill the role Beanie Bishop created at cornerback last season? Is Zach Frazier irreplaceable at center?

And, perhaps, the most intriguing of all is how players like running back Jahiem White, who dazzled opponents once he got his feet firmly planted on the ground, or wide receiver Hudson Clement, who went from walk on to walking on air, react in their second season.

Coach Neal Brown, meeting with the media for the first time in this new season, admitted he, too, is interested in the way such players go from freshman to sophomore and never brought up the dangers of a sophomore slump, something he believes is more than just a hackneyed phrase.

“Let’s go on rewind,” Brown said, about to set his clock back a year before Jahiem White had emerged and after running back C.J. Donaldson had emerged as a budding star as a freshman.

His first carry against Pitt two seasons ago was for 44 yards and before his season ended prematurely with a leg injury seven games in, he had rushed for 521 yards, which is 6 yards a carry, and rushed for 8 TDs, including an 82-yard score.

“I don’t think as a staff we did a good enough of a job preparing C.J. for that second year,” Brown continued. “He burst on the scene as a true freshman, got injured in the TCU game and I don’t think we prepared him for January on with what it would take to repeat that performance and improve.”

The second season was solid but didn’t have the same explosiveness, finishing with 798 yards on 171 carries with 11 touchdowns.

“The change up is that you learn; as you make mistakes you learn. It’s a challenge,” Brown said.

A challenge for the player and the coach, Brown emphasized, noting that the term “sophomore slump” refers to a very real thing.

“The reality is the sophomore slump happens a lot,” he said. “We have to hit it head on. The way I talk to Jahiem is, ‘Look at your numbers from last year. If your numbers are the same this year, is that something you are going to be happy with?'”

White led the Power 5 with a 7.7 yards a carry average, gaining 842 yards on 109 attempts with four touchdowns while also catching five passes for 52 yards and two touchdowns, one of them a game-winner.

“The answer is ‘No’, he won’t be happy,'” Brown admitted. “The other thing with Jahiem is I think he is special. He can do a lot and he’s maturing as a player and as a guy. There’s a lot of room for improvement.”

There must be, Brown reasons, for his name is on the lips of every WVU football fan as this new season dawns, it is not on the national radar.

“I did not get one question about him at Media Day. Not one person asked me about him,” Brown said. “He’s flying under the radar. We mentioned that to him. He knows that.”

So there’s a challenge there to drive White forward.

As for Clement, who was stunning in his three-touchdown game against Duquesne that earned him a scholarship and who’s last minute touchdown would have beaten Houston were it not for the Cougars’ “Hail Mary” heroics, Brown groups him in with all the receivers who really have had only one good year.

“The receiver group as a whole, we did some nice things last year and we did some nice things explosiveness wise, but if you were looking at scouting reports on us on offense last year it would be ‘Make them throw it and play the receivers singled up,'” Brown said.

“That’s a challenge for those guys. If we can improve our efficiency throwing it, and our receivers can win one-on-one, we are going to be tough to defend. Now you have to defend us horizontally and vertically. That will be a challenge for people.”

So those subplots will play out during the year and there is a flip side to that coin … guys who came in and expected big success like Trey Lathan and Josiah Trotter.

Trotter was a player WVU was counting on to play right away when recruited, a nearly 240-pound linebacker who is the son of two-time All-NFL backer Jeremiah Trotter of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Lathan was a redshirt freshman getting his first real playing time and off to a great start when he suffered a serious season-ending leg injury.

“The spring was really big for those two guys,” Brown said. “They went out there and practiced and practiced full speed and were able to get over some of those hurdles.”

“Trotter is a different mindset. I spend very little of my time being concerned whether he’s ready to go. When you grow up in that household and are prepared like he’s prepared, that’s not somebody that I’m going ‘Man, I wonder if he’s ready.’ Believe me, he’s ready. He’s a redshirt freshman. We have high expectations for him but understand he’s a redshirt freshman and is playing for the first time.

“But at the same time he’ll be prepared mentally and physically.”

After whetting fans’ appetites last season, Lathan comes into this season with huge expectations but as Brown points out, that second year is difficult as it is, without coming off of an injury.

“With Trey, that was a bad injury, so mentally that took a lot. He’s worked with people to overcome that. He got hit a lot in the spring and got better and had more confidence as the spring went on. He ran around well today. He did the same thing in all our OTAs.

“I always believe there’s a big jump when a guy is redshirt from the redshirt year to the redshirt freshman year, and I’m always intrigued by who that is going to be. Is it going to be a Nick Krahe who makes a big jump? Is it going to be Johnny Williams? Will he make a big jump?

“Corey McIntyre was set up for it. I knew he was going to make a big jump, but unfortunately, he’s injured. Who will it be? Can Josiah Trotter make that step? Can Jordan Jackson? I can go on and on, but that’s always intriguing to me. If a guy has been in your program for a whole year and have had a couple of offseasons, winter and summer, then it starts to click and the game slows down.

“So there’s always some guys in fall camp who make significant jumps.”

And, of course, you wonder who will be this year’s Donaldson or Jahiem White?

“We’ll have some freshmen who play. I’m going to be careful to talk about it right now, but some will play. Who? We’ll have to wait and see. It usually clears itself up after the first scrimmage. If they can handle the load we are installing in the second week you know you have something,” Brown said.

“Will it be as many in the past? I like these guys, What I hope is we progress where maybe some offensive line freshmen play.”