Clement set a state high school Super Six record by scoring eight touchdowns in Martinsburg’s Triple-A championship victory over Huntington High in 2021, but most observers really became familiar with him only after his emergency start against Duquesne last September.

Clement responded with five catches for 177 yards and three touchdowns in the Mountaineers’ 56-17 victory over the Dukes. Immediately after the game, coach Neal Brown awarded him a scholarship.

“Greatest day of my life,” Clement said after this year’s Gold-Blue game. “That was lifechanging for me, literally. I was a walk-on, and no one really knew my name, and then I got my opportunity when two guys went down that afternoon.”

Hudson caught what should have been the game-winning touchdown pass at Houston a few weeks later and finished the season with four catches for 80 yards in a road win at Baylor and five catches for 89 yards in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl victory over North Carolina.

“I’m very happy with my season, but I can’t plateau,” he explained. “I’ve got to stay on a constant rise, and I’m just trying to get better every day.”

Clement’s 22 receptions for 480 yards and four touchdowns essentially came against Duquesne, TCU, Houston, Baylor and North Carolina because of a leg injury that kept him out of the UCF and BYU contests.

An injury against Baylor prevented Fox from playing in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl; otherwise, he would have logged catches in every single game last season. Fox caught a season-high four passes for 81 yards in the Oklahoma State loss and finished the year with 26 catches for 368 yards and two touchdowns.

The duo combined for 48 catches for 848 yards and six touchdowns in 2023, making them WVU’s most productive Mountain State pass catching tandem in 59 years.

You must go back to the 1964 season to find a duo just as productive when Moundsville’s Milt Clegg led the Mountaineers with 31 catches for 437 yards and four touchdowns, and Wheeling’s Bob Dunlevy finished second to Clegg with 18 receptions for 279 yards and two scores. Fourth on the squad that season was Huntington’s Homer Criddle with 13 catches for 237 yards and two touchdowns.

Clegg, at 6-feet-1 and 218 pounds, and Dunlevy, at 6-feet-4 and 206 pounds, were basically tight ends while Criddle was a wingback who also carried the football 28 times for 157 yards and two scores. All three would not be considered wide receivers in the classic sense.

In between Clegg and Dunlevy and Clement and Fox, there have been just a handful of prominent in-state wide receivers at WVU.

Big Creek High’s Oscar Patrick became the first player in school history to catch 50 passes in a season, and despite standing 6-feet-4 and weighing 212 pounds, he was considered a true outside receiver. However, a knee injury against Tulane in 1969 curtailed Patrick’s promising college career.

Farmington’s Nate Stephens was another big pass-catching target in the early 1970s who grabbed a career-high 36 passes for 577 yards and four touchdowns in 1972, while Hurricane’s Steve Lewis caught the most passes of any state native during his five seasons playing in a Mountaineer uniform from 1974 to 1978.

Lewis, at 6-foot-3 and 190 pounds, with Juan Epstein-style frizzy hair that protruded from the back of his helmet, was trending toward a huge season in 1977 following a 48-catch, 737-yard, six-touchdown campaign in 1976, but he broke his collar bone in the second game of the year against Maryland and missed the remainder of the season.

Lewis managed to recover and have another fine campaign in 1978 despite the Mountaineers’ quarterback struggles that season to conclude his collegiate career with 111 catches for 1,718 yards and 12 touchdowns – still the standard for Mountain State wide receiver products at WVU.

“A graceful and very smooth athlete,” Mark Martin, WCHS and WVAH sports director recalled.

When Martin was a player at Ripley High, he once wrote a letter addressed simply: Steve Lewis, Hurricane, West Virginia, and it somehow made its way to Lewis at WVU. Martin admired Lewis as a player, and he wanted a few pointers to which Lewis complied. Lewis drove over to Ripley with a bag of footballs and the two worked out together one summer morning. It was act of kindness Martin never forget.

At the time, Lewis was considered a big deal to West Virginia kids growing up in the mid-1970s.

I certainly remember him.

Years later, Shenandoah Junction’s James Jett caught 67 passes in 42 career games for the Mountaineers from 1989-92, but his appeal to the Los Angeles Raiders was his world-class speed that enabled him to last 10 seasons in the NFL until retiring in 2002.

Wheeling Park High’s Zach Abraham made one of the most memorable catches in Backyard Brawl history to give West Virginia a 47-41, come-from-behind victory over the Panthers in 1994, and he also had five catches against Boston College and seven in the Carquest Bowl against South Carolina to finish the year with 41 receptions for 755 yards and six touchdowns.

Behind Patrick and Lewis, that’s the third-most catches of any Mountain State native in one season for the Mountaineers.

Some others with state ties to perform at wide receiver for West Virginia over the last 50 years or so include Morgantown High’s Tommy Bowden, Spencer High’s Matt McCulty, Magnolia High’s Kenny Fisher, Mount View High’s Jerrald Long (who later transferred to Marshall), George Washington High’s John Pennington, University High’s Ryan Nehlen and Spring Valley High’s Graeson Malashevich.

Compared to other skill positions on both sides of the football, that’s not very many West Virginians.

For decades, rushing attacks dominated prep football in the state. Except for Dave Cisar at Magnolia High in the 1980s and early 1990s, and Robert Burdette at Nitro High, with offensive coordinator Scott Tinsley calling the plays, the majority of West Virginia’s most successful high school coaches preferred to keep the ball on the ground.

Record-setting Division II quarterback Jed Drenning, who won the Kennedy Award following the 1987 season at Tucker County High, said he threw the ball less than 15 times a game during his senior season.

“Nobody back then threw the ball like Dave Cisar did at Magnolia,” Drenning recalled. “I would have loved to have played in his offensive system when I was in high school.”

Tinsely’s dynamic aerial attack at Nitro produced the state’s most prolific passer, J.R. House, and its most productive single season pass catcher, Chris Martin.

House threw for 14,457 yards and 145 touchdowns while Martin’s senior season in 1998 saw him grab 132 passes for 2,061 yards and 27 touchdowns – all state records. House turned to professional baseball before briefly playing at WVU, while Martin’s college career fizzled out after a couple of unremarkable seasons at Marshall.

Mingo Central’s Drew Hatfield, now playing for Pennington at West Virginia State, established the state record for career catches (343) and receiving yards (5,168) when his prep career ended in 2019.

Martinsburg’s Brandon Barrett, who played briefly for West Virginia in 2005, owns the state mark with 74 touchdown catches while Clarksburg Roosevelt-Wilson High’s Chris George, who also began his career at WVU, had one of the most prolific pass-catching careers in Division II football while playing for coach Rich Rodriguez at Glenville State.

According to Martin, Marshall’s list of top in-state pass catchers includes New Martinsville’s John “Fuzzy” Filliez, Sistersville’s Brian Swisher, Clarksburg’s Tim Lewis, Winfield’s Mike Barber, South Charleston’s Aaron Dobson, and, of course, the incomparable Randy Moss, who prepped at now-defunct DuPont High.

Moss, Barber and Buffalo High’s Lionel Taylor must be considered among the best wide receivers the state has ever produced, although Barber was an all-state quarterback and defensive back in high school.

All three are in national halls of fame.

George Washington High’s Ryan Switzer became a prominent slot receiver and return specialist at North Carolina, later playing three NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, but his primary position in high school was running back.

Notable pre-World War II in-state receivers include Parkersburg’s Earle “Greasy” Neale, who once caught two long touchdown passes in West Virginia Wesleyan’s stunning 1912 upset victory over West Virginia, Ripley’s Bill Karr, an All-Pro end for the Chicago Bears in 1935, and Huntington’s Wilbur Sortet, who played 84 games for the Pittsburgh Steelers over eight seasons from 1933 to 1940.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Parkersburg’s Clarence “Bud” Cox and Parsons’ Terry Fairbanks caught a lot of passes for the Mountaineers. Cox’s second quarter touchdown reception against UTEP helped West Virginia to a 21-12 victory over the Miners in the 1949 Sun Bowl.

Karr (6-feet-1, 185 pounds) and Sortet (6-feet-1, 182 pounds) compare favorably size-wise to Clement (6-feet-1, 197 pounds), while Fox is a little bit on the smaller side at 5-feet-10, 187 pounds.

Mountaineer coach Neal Brown, once receiver at Kentucky and Massachusetts, possesses a keen eye for pass-catching talent and as a result, managed to unearth a couple of gems in Clement and Fox. According to strength and conditioning coach Mike Joseph, both possess “above average speed.”

Of the two, Clement has slightly faster top-end speed while Fox is a little more proficient in his ability to change direction.

“Another winter with Mike Joe is the best thing any athlete can ask for,” Clement admitted. “In high school, speed was something that I might not have looked fast, but I felt like I was moving. In college, Mike has helped me with my running form and how I run.”

WVU’s wide receiver future will also include another Mountain State product in Princeton speedster Dom Collins, who will be racing Jefferson High’s Keyshawn Robinson in next week’s state track and field championship at Laidley Field in Charleston.

Robinson was also signed by WVU as an athlete but will likely begin his college career in the secondary.

And speaking of Kennedy Award winners, retired Wheeling Intelligencer sports editor and state prep historian Doug Huff says Collins is one of only three wide receivers to ever win West Virginia’s most prestigious high school football award – the other two were Moss and Barrett, both Parade All-Americans.

Clement’s advice to Collins is the same advice he would give to any other West Virginia high school wide receiver wanting to play college football.

“Put your head down and work,” he explained. “There is no cheat code to it. I got blessed with a great opportunity and performed, but you’ve got to be ready when your number is called. You are working for the unknown.”

Considering what Hudson Clement and Preston Fox are now accomplishing, and with Dom Collins on the way later this summer, the unknowns are becoming clearer to in-state wide receivers wanting to play big-time college football for the West Virginia Mountaineers.