The human mind can sometimes be fickle.
West Virginia wide receiver Preston Fox thought he knew what he wanted to do -- call it a career with one season of eligibility remaining. Fox made the choice following the termination of Neal Brown, the coach he had spent all five seasons of his collegiate career playing for.
Fox didn’t make a particularly big deal regarding his retirement, despite playing an integral role in the Mountaineer offense and featuring prominently in the return game over the past two seasons.
But the Morgantown native did let the news break that he was hanging up his cleats. But the allure of that final season of eligibility was perhaps a bit too strong, and WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez did confirm at a spring football press conference on Monday that Fox is back with the team and participating in practice.
“I got a call that he might want to come back,” Rodriguez said. “I knew about him a little bit, just looking at last year -- I thought he was out of eligibility, I didn’t realize he had another year. He called me, and he said he wanted to talk about coming back, so I said sure. So we came over, we met, and I said, I'd love to have him.”
Fox has been with WVU since 2020, but saw most of his action during the 2023 and 2024 seasons -- during those two years, he hauled in 38 receptions for 499 yards and two touchdowns and was also the team’s starting punt returner.
“He’s a good football player, and I think all of his teammates loved him, and it's good to have him,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a guy that can help us, I think, at all our receiver positions. He’s a smart guy.”
Fox is officially back with the team, but not in full pads yet -- but he’s gearing up to finish out spring practice strong. As to where he’ll fit in on Rodriguez’s roster with the upcoming roster cuts as teams are forced to downsize their rosters to just 105 players is yet to be seen.
“We got his second practice in today, and he’ll be ready to go full pads next week -- or Wednesday, I guess,” Rodriguez said.