MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - Sam James says he thought his second-quarter touchdown catch in West Virginia's 27-21 victory over Virginia Tech was going to be stopped short of the goal line.
 
"In my head, because they're showing zone with the safety over me, I'm thinking it's going to be a catch-tackle type thing," he says. "But then when I caught it and he missed I'm like, 'Oh, this is a touchdown.' I couldn't hear anything even though I know the crowd was roaring. I was just in the moment, living the moment."
 
Living moment to moment was sometimes excruciating for James, whose production submarined from 69 catches during his redshirt freshman season in 2019 to 31 catches a year ago.
 
Everybody and their brother was giving him advice.
 
"What happened in 2020, people are like 'Sam needs to get back to this Sam' and blah, blah, blah. To a certain extent they're wrong because even then I wasn't as productive as I am now these first couple of games and I wasn't as good as I am now," he explains. "I wasn't really listening to that, it was like, 'Oh, whatever.' 
 
"In my head, I did some good things that year but I knew I still had to get better reading certain coverages, reading my triangle on my side to see if it's cover two, cover four or they're in quarters," he says. "Or, just seeing if it's a single-high safety and the middle field is open or closed, that type of thing. If I would have had that in 2019 it would have been different."
 
James admits 2020 put a big chip on his shoulder.
 
"I just flipped the switch and got into that mode and just played," he says. "I understand it's a game and I don't have to take it so seriously and just go out there and have fun and just play."
 
He's having a lot more fun this year. Through four games, he's caught 15 passes for 187 yards with an already-career-best three touchdowns. 
 
He's on a pace right now to catch about 50 passes this year.
 
"For me, I want everybody to understand that you have to put the work in. If you put the work in you are going to reap the benefits and you build confidence over the work you put it," he says. 
 
"Building confidence is just repetition. It's a saying coach (Gerad) Parker always says and it's the truth, the work and then the results and you have to follow that process no matter what in order to be successful," he adds. "In order to have success, you need to know the truth in order to know what to work on. 
 
"I'm putting the work in and now I'm reaping the benefits."
 
This week's Life as a Mountaineer was produced by Sean Merinar and is presented each week by our friends at Panhandle Cleaning & Restoration.