MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — As much as we made of Scotty Fox Jr.’s first start for West Virginia as a true freshman, it wasn’t enough.

After all, it had been 73 years since a true freshman had started at the position at WVU before and we’ve all had our sense of accomplishment dulled by hearing such statistics over and over.

“That’s the first time in 29 years anyone has gained 6 yards on four consecutive carries on a rainy day in November since Jimmy Joe did it against Utica Marbles in a 73-0 victory.”

So?

But think of it. There was a reason that hasn’t happened, and it wasn’t just because for a long period of time freshmen couldn’t play varsity football.

Let’s try to put it in terms you will understand. Would you flip the keys to your new Mercedes-Benz to your 9-year-old son and tell him to “go out and have fun and be home by 8”?

There’s a reason we teach the A-B-Cs before we ask you to write a novel and why you learn to count before we ask you to solve an advanced calculus problem.

You aren’t ready to lead a college team into a football game on national television before a sellout crowd as a freshman.

Want proof?

OK, let’s look at some of WVU’s greatest quarterbacks and how their careers progressed over the years.

Major Harris played three years under Don Nehlen, he went from passing for 1,200 yards and 10 TDs to passing for 1,915 yards and 14 TDs to passing for 2,058 yards and 17 TDs.

Oliver Luck? His first year he threw the ball 32 times and had five of them intercepted without a touchdown and just 151 yards. His second season he went to 103 completions for 1,292 yards and 8 TDs, but 12 INTs while by his senior year he completed 216 passes for 2,448 yards with 16 TDs.

Geno Smith broke all of WVU’s quarterback passing records but his freshman year he threw the ball just 49 times for 309 yards and one TD, then followed that up with 241 completions his second year for 2,763 yards and 24 TDs and in his senior year completed 369 passes for 4,205 yards and 46 TDs with 6 interceptions.

Marc Bulger? As a freshman, he went 19 for 42 passing for 352 yards, and in his final year, he completed 274 passes out of 419 for 3,607 yards and 31 TDS.

And yes, even Pat White had a redshirt year, then went from going 65 for 114 for 828 yards and 8 TDs as a redshirt freshman to going 180 for 274 passing with 1,812 yards and 21 TDs in his final season.

Think of your first year as a college freshman, the awe and uncertainty of it all, or your first year on the job and how you needed to be guided through it.

Now picture what it’s like for Fox as he readies for his third start at Houston at noon Saturday on TNT.

“What’s most unique with Scotty is that he doesn’t have any experience around him,” coach Rich Rodriguez said in Tuesday’s press conference. “The guys might be older guys, but everybody around him is new to the system, and everybody but one is a new starter.”

He really can’t even call upon his teammates for guidance.

“It’s a different dynamic,” Rodriguez said. “I mean, I’ve had freshmen quarterbacks before, but they would have maybe a little experience up front, some experience in the receiver room, but nobody has any experience. That’s not an excuse, that’s just the reality. We have to have enough stuff in order to be able to execute and score points, but we can’t overcomplicate things.”

What must be going through the mind of a true freshman, who a year ago was playing against maybe your son who you know is destined for a career as a CPA or salesman and now is facing future NFL stars, bigger, stronger and faster than anything he’s played against, coached by far wiser coaches than by a part-time football coach in high school.

Everything is happening with speed he hasn’t seen from players in more complicated schemes who are doing things he’s never seen before.

“I thought he was accurate. I thought his decision-making was pretty good,” Rodriguez said of his performance against TCU when he threw for 301 yards. “I think he was seeing the field. He was getting rid of the ball quickly when he had to. There was a lot to grow off of.

“He’s going to see something new every week, and we got to help prepare him for that,” Rodriguez continued. “But for a true freshman in that environment, he was composed, and there were a couple times he dropped some snaps or something, but even then, he didn’t panic. I was proud of the way he played.”

Still, he is closer to the bottom of his learning curve than toward the top and needs coaching and, with Rodriguez, that means hard coaching.

“We don’t worry about anybody’s feelings or anything like that,” Rodriguez said. “We tell them straight up, like that was not very smart, or that was really good. It’s not all negative, it’s not all positive, it just is what it is.

“The quarterbacks, we tell them, we are going to be brutally honest with you and this is how it’s going to be. We don’t kind of worry about, even if he’s a freshman, let’s treat him with knit gloves, not destroy his confidence. You destroy your confidence by playing poorly. You play well, you get more confidence.”

If things go right, each week he will be smarter. He might not play better from week to week, for the opponents do their scouting and have more experience, but he puts into the memory bank and finds out what he does well, what he doesn’t, what his receivers can do and what they can’t.

Think, if you will, of the growth and improvement in the games of Skyler Howard and Garrett Greene before him and understand that the best is yet to come and it will not come without failure and competition as Rodriguez continues to put the pieces to his offense together.