MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is nearing the point in preseason training camp where some tough decisions must be made.

Which players can the coaches rely on?

Which newcomers are there?

Who will be the players to bet on?

Who will the coaches call plays for?

Which players will be targeted on the third attempt?

“As a coach, experience is your crutch, but hungry talent can overcome experience,” said the West Virginia coach Neal Brown he said earlier today.

In case of transfer by Oklahoma State Jaden Brayit’s somehow somewhere in between.

Bray has Big 12 experience. In two full seasons with the Cowboys, he caught 13 passes for 250 yards and two touchdowns as a true freshman in 2021 and made 30 catches for 382 yards and two touchdowns last year, including one in OSU’s 48-34 victory over West Virginia in Morgantown.

He’s also extremely talented and has the right size. One of the attractive aspects of acquiring him through the transfer portal last winter was his 6’2″, his weight and his ability to break through man coverage.

The Mountaineers’ smaller receivers have sometimes struggled in this area in the past, and signing a player with the same stats as Bray improves the team’s physicality on the flanks.

Bray said today he is looking for a place where he could be deployed on an expanded basis, but remained somewhat vague about what exactly that would mean.

“I just felt like I had a role when I was at Oklahoma State and I really wanted to expand that role if that makes sense,” he said.

Secure.

To paraphrase Jed Drenning, Bray was never the guy who liked him in Stillwater. In his freshman year, the two best pass catchers were Tay Martin and Brennan Presley. Two years ago, Bray sat out most of the year with a thumb injury, missing all but three games and redshirting.

Last year, he returned to the receiver rotation and became the No. 4 option behind Presley, Rashod Owens and Leon Johnson. After the season, he jumped into the transfer portal, researched West Virginia and when he came to Morgantown for a visit, he fell in love with everything about the program.

“What drew me here was the people and the culture,” Bray explained. “There’s a great thing going on here and I just wanted to be a part of it. Since I’ve been visiting here, it’s just the interaction with the people, especially in the reception room, that brought me here.”

Now, a week into preseason practice, Bray has put himself in a position to make his mark on West Virginia’s experienced and talented offense, which features multiple playmakers at several different positions.

Brown said he likes what he’s seen from Bray so far.

“I’m excited about him as a football player and he’s going to be one of our better special teams players as well,” he said.

“First of all, he plays the game really hard,” Brown continued. “He’s coachable. The other day he ran over 21 miles per hour on a kickoff. That’s special. He’s really good as a gunner on the punt. I think he’s going to be elite at that.”

And then as a recipient?

“I think he uses his body well on offense,” Brown said. “He made some plays in the red zone where he went forward and used his length. Those are some really positive things.”

Brown has spoken publicly about his desire to score more touchdowns when his offense gets into the red zone. So far, Bray is showing a knack for catching passes in the huddle and using his impressive physical attributes to his advantage.

He has also shown the ability to break tackles and evade defenders. One drill involves catching a pass on one side of the field, then changing direction and getting his blockers in position for a long pass while running to the other side.

These are instinctive moves that cannot be trained.

“He’s still developing (in terms of understanding the offense),” Brown admitted. “He’s probably missed more games than I’d like for a player who was here in the spring, but when you play as hard as he does, you can kind of overlook that.”

“With two weeks to go, things are moving slowly,” noted Bray. “We’re almost finished installing our stuff, so things are going well. Some days I might have a few stupid MAs (missed tasks), but other than that, things are going really well.”

As for his willingness to play hard every game, Bray says he gets that from his father, Alphonzo Bray, and his mother, Tannica Binder, both of whom are U.S. Army veterans. Alphonzo has worked as a police officer in Lawton, Oklahoma, for the past 20 years.

“My dad gets up at 4 or 5 every morning and goes to work, and he does that every day,” Bray explained. “It’s the same routine. Same with my mom; she works hard. They really are my why. I just give everything for them.”

And your advice?

“Don’t be a follower and stay on your own course, especially in college, because you can get caught up in things that don’t matter,” he said. “Don’t be too high on your highs and too low on your lows. Those are some of the things they taught me.”

Bray has played at Milan Puskar Stadium twice, as a freshman in 2021 and last year as a junior, so he has experienced what the gameday atmosphere is like in Morgantown.

But he hasn’t really gotten a taste of the atmosphere here like he will on Saturday, Aug. 31, when preseason No. 8 Penn State comes to town for the noon kickoff. His reference points are the 51,870 that showed up last year and the 50,109 that came to the 2021 OSU games, both of which were Cowboys victories.

Those additional 10,000 fans can really make a difference with the stadium’s location between Law School Hill and Don Nehlen Boulevard.

“The fans here are great,” he said. “I’ve played here twice. I know the fans pretty well and they’ve really embraced West Virginia being the only team here. I really like the fans and the whole atmosphere.”

If he liked them then, just wait a few weeks and see what he thinks.

The countdown to kick-off is still 18 days, 19 hours and 55 minutes.