Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Fox Gives Mountaineers Veteran Presence in His Final Season
August 13, 2025 03:49 PM | Football
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many years ago, Myron Cope once wrote an article for Sports Illustrated about Roberto Clemente that included a diagram of his many injuries titled Aches, Pains and Batting Titles.
A similar article could be written today about West Virginia University senior wide receiver Preston Fox, whose beat-up body nearly led him to end his college career with one year of eligibility remaining.
It began last year with a calf and hamstring injury in the Pitt game, continued with a lower back injury and concluded with a concussion in the regular-season finale at Texas Tech.
"Initially, it was because of all the injuries I had," Fox said earlier this week of his decision to hang up his cleats. "My lower back was hurting really bad, and the stuff earlier in the year and at the end of the year with the concussion, it just kind of set me off and my mind was I just didn't want to play anymore. Then I started to miss the game."
Despite the injuries, Fox did manage to play in last year's bowl game loss to Memphis, making three catches for 19 yards. However, it got to the point where it just didn't seem to make much sense to continue to play.
Then, when he began feeling better last winter and was working out at a local gym, he realized he couldn't stop thinking about football. That led to a text message he sent to coach Rich Rodriguez asking him if there was any room on his roster for an experienced Big 12 wide receiver who can also return punts.
Rodriguez said there was, so Fox rejoined the team midway through spring football practice.
"I was hopeful he would give me the chance to come back, and he did," Fox said. "I didn't have any high expectations going into it, but he welcomed me back with open arms."
What Fox is giving Rodriguez is a player with 41 career games of power conference football experience that includes 43 catches for 548 yards and three touchdowns.
Of equal value is what he brings to the team in the return game.
Fox has returned 38 punts for 301 yards, including a long return of 30 yards during last year's home loss to Kansas State. He also fair caught 18 punts, seven fewer than last year's Big 12 leader and 14 shy of the national leader.
He has 44 fair catches for his career.
Fair catching punts doesn't seem like such a big deal until you don't have a proven guy who can do it. Just think back to the Dana Holgorsen years when watching West Virginia try and return punts was a sight to behold.
Hidden yardage became apparent yardage each time a bouncing ball made its way back toward West Virginia's goal line. Special teams coordinator Pat Kirkland understands the high cost of real estate these days.
"People don't realize, when you are a punt returner and that ball hits the ground and rolls for an additional 17 yards, it's a huge play," he explained. "I tell our guys that a fair catch is almost as good as a return, at times.
"You've got to have the courage sometimes to field that ball and make a fair catch in some chaos. That's where the accountability comes in," Kirkland said. "We've got to trust that person to make a good decision of when to get away from it, when to make a fair catch and when they've got the opportunity to create a return for themselves."
In Preston Fox, West Virginia has its "Old Faithful."
"What I've seen is a senior with a lot of game experience making a lot of good decisions," Kirkland said of the former Morgantown High standout. "He's a great leader during practice. He's taken some of those young guys and encouraged them and kind of shared some of his experiences with them, which is really important. He's doing a great job thus far, and I'm excited to have him back."
If you factor in 10 to 20 yards of roll for each punt Fox fair caught last season, not to mention the 105 yards in returns he made, that amounts to anywhere from 285 to 465 yards of improved field position for the Mountaineers in 2024.
You give a Rich Rodriguez offense that much additional yardage, and it's going to do something with it.
At the very least, simply catching punts avoids being consistently backed up to your own goal line.
"Special teams are such a field position battle, and you're looking for a guy who can catch the ball and get vertical and get positive yardage for you and start your offense in a good place," Kirkland said.
For Fox, the guy with the most experience catching punts, he is thankfully once again in a good place, physically and mentally.
"It was pretty taxing mentally and physically last year," he admitted. "I needed that couple months to get my mental back and body back. I feel good."
The senior believes his veteran presence and game experience can also help the Mountaineer wide receiver corps. He admits he prefers playing outside receiver because that's what he's played his entire college career, but he's capable of lining up inside, too.
"The ball gets to you faster, so you have to have quicker hand-eye coordination with that," he said, adding, "I'm just trying to give it my all every single day."
With Preston back in the fold, those big Fox family tailgates at Milan Puskar Stadium can continue on as they have before, with everyone cheering for Preston on game days instead of visiting with him.
That can wait another year.
"It's weird being the old guy and seeing everyone leave, but it has to come to an end at some point," he said.
Preston's father, Tom, couldn't be happier to see his son back out there running around wearing his familiar No. 29 Mountaineer jersey for one more season.
"My dad was pushing me to come back every day," Preston laughs. "He was very convincing."
West Virginia's practice outdoors was interrupted by this morning's lightning storm, which required players to finish it indoors.
The team is scheduled to be in full pads again tomorrow leading up to Saturday's second full-scale scrimmage of the fall.
Following the scrimmage, Rodriguez indicated that the coaching staff will spend Sunday discussing a tentative depth chart to begin preparing for the season opener against Robert Morris on Saturday, Aug. 30.
A similar article could be written today about West Virginia University senior wide receiver Preston Fox, whose beat-up body nearly led him to end his college career with one year of eligibility remaining.
It began last year with a calf and hamstring injury in the Pitt game, continued with a lower back injury and concluded with a concussion in the regular-season finale at Texas Tech.
"Initially, it was because of all the injuries I had," Fox said earlier this week of his decision to hang up his cleats. "My lower back was hurting really bad, and the stuff earlier in the year and at the end of the year with the concussion, it just kind of set me off and my mind was I just didn't want to play anymore. Then I started to miss the game."
Despite the injuries, Fox did manage to play in last year's bowl game loss to Memphis, making three catches for 19 yards. However, it got to the point where it just didn't seem to make much sense to continue to play.
Then, when he began feeling better last winter and was working out at a local gym, he realized he couldn't stop thinking about football. That led to a text message he sent to coach Rich Rodriguez asking him if there was any room on his roster for an experienced Big 12 wide receiver who can also return punts.
Rodriguez said there was, so Fox rejoined the team midway through spring football practice.
"I was hopeful he would give me the chance to come back, and he did," Fox said. "I didn't have any high expectations going into it, but he welcomed me back with open arms."
What Fox is giving Rodriguez is a player with 41 career games of power conference football experience that includes 43 catches for 548 yards and three touchdowns.
Of equal value is what he brings to the team in the return game.
Fox has returned 38 punts for 301 yards, including a long return of 30 yards during last year's home loss to Kansas State. He also fair caught 18 punts, seven fewer than last year's Big 12 leader and 14 shy of the national leader.
He has 44 fair catches for his career.
Fair catching punts doesn't seem like such a big deal until you don't have a proven guy who can do it. Just think back to the Dana Holgorsen years when watching West Virginia try and return punts was a sight to behold.
Hidden yardage became apparent yardage each time a bouncing ball made its way back toward West Virginia's goal line. Special teams coordinator Pat Kirkland understands the high cost of real estate these days.
"People don't realize, when you are a punt returner and that ball hits the ground and rolls for an additional 17 yards, it's a huge play," he explained. "I tell our guys that a fair catch is almost as good as a return, at times.
"You've got to have the courage sometimes to field that ball and make a fair catch in some chaos. That's where the accountability comes in," Kirkland said. "We've got to trust that person to make a good decision of when to get away from it, when to make a fair catch and when they've got the opportunity to create a return for themselves."
In Preston Fox, West Virginia has its "Old Faithful."
"What I've seen is a senior with a lot of game experience making a lot of good decisions," Kirkland said of the former Morgantown High standout. "He's a great leader during practice. He's taken some of those young guys and encouraged them and kind of shared some of his experiences with them, which is really important. He's doing a great job thus far, and I'm excited to have him back."
If you factor in 10 to 20 yards of roll for each punt Fox fair caught last season, not to mention the 105 yards in returns he made, that amounts to anywhere from 285 to 465 yards of improved field position for the Mountaineers in 2024.
You give a Rich Rodriguez offense that much additional yardage, and it's going to do something with it.
At the very least, simply catching punts avoids being consistently backed up to your own goal line.
"Special teams are such a field position battle, and you're looking for a guy who can catch the ball and get vertical and get positive yardage for you and start your offense in a good place," Kirkland said.
For Fox, the guy with the most experience catching punts, he is thankfully once again in a good place, physically and mentally.
"It was pretty taxing mentally and physically last year," he admitted. "I needed that couple months to get my mental back and body back. I feel good."
The senior believes his veteran presence and game experience can also help the Mountaineer wide receiver corps. He admits he prefers playing outside receiver because that's what he's played his entire college career, but he's capable of lining up inside, too.
"The ball gets to you faster, so you have to have quicker hand-eye coordination with that," he said, adding, "I'm just trying to give it my all every single day."
With Preston back in the fold, those big Fox family tailgates at Milan Puskar Stadium can continue on as they have before, with everyone cheering for Preston on game days instead of visiting with him.
That can wait another year.
"It's weird being the old guy and seeing everyone leave, but it has to come to an end at some point," he said.
Preston's father, Tom, couldn't be happier to see his son back out there running around wearing his familiar No. 29 Mountaineer jersey for one more season.
"My dad was pushing me to come back every day," Preston laughs. "He was very convincing."
West Virginia's practice outdoors was interrupted by this morning's lightning storm, which required players to finish it indoors.
The team is scheduled to be in full pads again tomorrow leading up to Saturday's second full-scale scrimmage of the fall.
Following the scrimmage, Rodriguez indicated that the coaching staff will spend Sunday discussing a tentative depth chart to begin preparing for the season opener against Robert Morris on Saturday, Aug. 30.
Players Mentioned
WR
/ FootballCam Cook | March 30
Monday, March 30
Coach Jay Boulware | March 30
Monday, March 30
Coach Rich Rodriguez | March 30
Monday, March 30
Rick Trickett | March 24
Tuesday, March 24
