Mountaineers excelling on special teams with Preston Fox
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MORGANTOWN -- Sometimes you out hit the opposition in football. Sometimes you outrun them. Sometimes you out scheme them.
And sometimes you simply have to "out Fox" them, as West Virginia did on Saturday at Cincinnati as wide receiver/punt returner/kickoff return Preston Fox had a huge day, earning not only the praise of Coach Neal Brown and the team's special player of the week award but the respect of those who tried to stop him in the return game.
"He had three explosives," Brown said. "He had 84 yards on kickoff returns, 43 on punt returns. That was a big factor in the game."
In fact, Brown took that one step further.
"Our best offense was him returning the ball," Brown said on a day when the offense sputtered and needed the returns and two defensive touchdowns to get the crucial road win that sent their record to 5-4 heading into Saturday's 4 p.m. home game against a hot Baylor team.
Those comments came after Brown had spent Sunday watching film of his team and he saw nothing to change his mind over what he had said in his post-game interview session.
"We've quietly been really good on special teams all year and nobody talks about it," Brown said then. "(People) only notice it when something goes wrong, but man, our kickoff return, punt return, Preston Fox…I thought he was huge today. We won the field position battle soundly. I thought we dominated in that area and those two phases really won the game for us today."
This was a tribute to the perseverance on the part of the Mountaineers, who not that long ago were so bad at special teams they dedicated themselves to turning it into a strength.
They went out and recruited speed in big wide receivers and linebackers for coverage. They brought in Ollie Straw, an Australian, to punt. They brought Michael Hayes in through the transfer portal to place kick and kick off.
It became not a part of a wish list but instead was part of a to do list.
As Brown noted, while good special teams play is often overlooked, mistakes are not. It's more important than ever this week against Baylor because a year ago Richard Reese returned kickoffs of 96 and 93 yards for touchdowns in a game against WVU.
This year the kickoff coverage team ranks No. 28 in the nation and the punt return coverage team ranks No. 1 in the Big 12 and No. 15 in the nation.
Fox has developed into first a reliable punt and kickoff return man and now a dangerous one.
"Preston had a great day and we blocked really well, too," Brown said. "Kickoff return we had two explosive returns, flipped the field a couple of different times. On punt returns, Preston has a knack for it. It takes a lot of courage to do that. I think it's the hardest thing to do, catching punts."
Fox credited his days playing centerfield in baseball for his ability to catch punts. Think about it and the two are not much different. The wind and the spin play a huge role and if you think you get hit hard on punt returns, think about running an outfield wall while running down a fly ball.
"Punt return, it's all about confidence," Fox said this week. "I've talked about that in the past. Just taking as many reps as you can at it. A lot of people aren't very good at it."
There's another c-word involved in returning punts besides confidence and that's courage. It takes a lot of courage to stand there, your eyes skyward, your midsection exposed as the outside gunners come flying down the field with you being the blip on their radar screen.
And kickoff returns are different for you know how it's going to be blocked but there are so many options such as should you run it back, fair catch, or head for the sidelines.
"I'm not the fastest guy," Fox said. I can just go. I don't think out there, I just react," Fox said. "So, when I see a hole, I kind of hit it. A lot of guys get scared and hold back or cut. You can't do that. You have to go full speed at it."