MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Believe it or not, Sam James' 14-catch, 223-yard performance last Saturday afternoon against Texas Tech easily could have been much, much more than that – possibly historic.
 
James dropped at least four passes in that game, and his two long receptions would have covered the length of the field if he had caught them in stride. That would have put his totals somewhere in the vicinity of 18 catches for 300-350 yards. Still, 14 catches and 223 yards are quite a bit to digest for a player as young as James, just a redshirt freshman.
 
It's rare in WVU history having a pass-catcher this young become the focal point of the Mountaineer offense. When Stedman Bailey was rewriting the WVU record books in 2012 he was a junior planning on leaving school a year early for the NFL Draft.
 
Tavon Austin and Gary Jennings Jr. were seniors when they were blowing up the stat sheets, just like Kevin White.
 
The one thing all of those guys have in common, besides catching a bunch of passes for more than 215 yards in one football game – all of them were NFL-caliber wide receivers.
 
The NFL could very well be in James' future, which is why Neal Brown has been so hard on him – and why he's force-feeding him the football even though his young receiver sometimes still spits it back up.
 
"He has a huge ceiling, so I've coached him (hard) really since I've got here," Brown said earlier this week. "When we went to winter workouts I liked his high school film. I liked the film our GAs made when he scrimmaged last year during his redshirt year, and I liked the talent I saw in the winter."
 
The bar chart representing James' production this year has been up and down. He began the season with 30-yard games against James Madison and Missouri before exploding in week three against NC State with nine catches for 155 yards and a touchdown.
 
Then the Richmond Hill, Georgia, resident went into sleep mode again with average games against Kansas and Texas, followed by three straight below-average outings against Iowa State, Oklahoma and Baylor leading into last week.
 
If you remove those two terrific games against NC State and Texas Tech, what we're really looking at is typical freshman season statistically. The problem is, Brown needs James to perform like Bailey, Austin, Jennings and White did when they were juniors and seniors, a tough assignment, for sure.
 
"That's what coach Brown has been preaching, 'Y'all aren't freshmen anymore. You need to play like you're second-year sophomores or juniors,'" James said. "It's just being able to take that and go play because I've got a bigger role than what I thought I was going to have."
 
Circumstances sometimes don't make for ideal scenarios, and nothing about this season has been ideal for Brown, who is used to winning far more than he loses.
 
He knows some of his younger players such as James are going to have some scar tissue once the season is over, but when they finally get to the other side of this they are going to be much tougher and much wiser for it.
 
"Here is a kid that's a redshirt freshman, and he had 14 catches for 223, just won another Big 12 (newcomer of the week) for the second time, and that's a lot of burden to put on a redshirt freshman right now. I'm standing up here talking about him being our best playmaker and our go-to guy," Brown said, shaking his head.
 
There were a couple of instances on Saturday when Brown could see things smoothing out a little bit for James, and both didn't involve those two deep passes he caught down the middle of the field.
 
The first happened early in the game when James took a screen pass that was perfectly blocked and ran out of bounds for just a 3-yard gain when it could have easily been 6. A month ago, James would have carried a mistake like that with him for the entire game.
 
Brown went right back to him for a 9-yard gain and again a third time, and in both instances James responded.
 
Then, later in the game following two straight dropped passes, Brown called his number yet again and Sam responded with a big first down catch.
 
"Do I think he played well on Saturday? I think there are some things he did really well," Brown said. "The most proud I am of him is he overcame some negative plays for really the first time in his career. He was able to overcome a drop. He was able to overcome a bad run."
 
"It means a lot to me because it shows that he believes in me," James said.
 
And even more passes are likely headed his way this Saturday, no matter what Kansas State tries to do to take him out of the game.
 
"I'm excited about his future," Brown said. "You've heard me defend him just because of where we're at as a program. I think we're having to put a little more on him than maybe he was ready for, and I think he's now starting to grow into that role."
 
Just think what type of weapon James can become when West Virginia finally develops a running game to complement him.
 
James can.
 
"Once we start running the ball that's going to open up play action and suck those safeties in and then it's going to be one-on-one on the edge and then all you've got to do is win one-on-one battles," James said.
 
Someday soon. Perhaps it's this Saturday at Kansas State, who knows? Maybe this is the week the Mountaineers put it all together in all three phases.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN.
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network coverage starts at noon on affiliates throughout West Virginia leading into regular game coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 2:30 p.m.