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MORGANTOWN -- Redshirt sophomore Michael Ferns has been a Mountaineer for less than 12 months. But, the former St. Clairsville standout has already seen the best of times and the worst of times as a member of the No. 12-ranked West Virginia University football team.
"I guess you could say that," Ferns explained during Tuesday's weekly press conference. "It has really been a roller coaster ride since in came in January (2015)."
Redshirted during his freshman season as a member of the University of Michigan football team, Ferns sat out the 2015 campaign while serving the NCAA's transfer eligibility requirements. Making life in Morgantown a little bit more bearable, however, was the arrival of younger brother Brendan as part of the Mountaineers' Class of 2016 recruiting class.
"We live together, so I am able to speak to him all of the time," the tight end/fullback said. "We'd talk some football, but mostly we just talked about everything else."
That all changed, at least on the football side, one summer day during WVU's preseason training camp.
"(Brendan) came up to me after practice and said he was going over to see the trainer," said Michael, who came to Morgantown expecting to play linebacker, but was moved to the offensive side by head coach Dana Holgorsen. "I gave Dravon (Askew-Henry) a ride home and when I arrived at our apartment I received a call telling me that I needed to get over to the trainers' room."
When the 2014 all-district first-team selection got there, he was informed that Brendan had suffered a knee injury that would require season-ending surgery.
"First, we both had to deal with the shock. Once we got over that, we had to deal with the surgery and the recovery. Brendan isn't just my brother, but he's my teammate and we had already dealt with other players who had been hurt during camp."
One of three children of Michael and Heidi Ferns, Brendan was being counted on to supply some much needed depth to a linebacking corps which had lost all three starters from the Mountaineers' 8-5 team of a year ago.
As a senior at St. Clairsville, Brendan led the team to a 9-3 overall mark and a second-round appearance in the state playoffs. The 220-pounder finished with 118 tackles, 10 tackles for loss, a pair of sacks, five pass breakups, two forced fumbles and two interceptions. Offensively, Brendan Ferns rushed for 1,066 yards and 18 touchdowns and recorded 27 catches for 600 yards and four scores and earned a spot on the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.
"That's probably the worst part of it because he had worked so hard to get himself to this level," Michael said. "We were really looking forward to seeing if we could both make impacts on this year's team -- me on offense and him on defense."
Michael, who was invited to play in the 2014 Under Armour All-American game, but did not participate because of injury, is beginning to see his playing time increase as the Mountaineers look to add depth at the fullback position behind junior Elijah Wellman.
"Mostly the coaches are asking me to block, but that's okay because that's what I did back in high school. We had a pretty good running back at St. Clairsville just like we have here, so if that's what they need me to do, I have no problem with it."
Crutches have kept Brendan from being on the sidelines with his brother during WVU's 5-0 start, but Michael expects he will become a more common fixture beginning with the Mountaineers' 3:30 p.m. encounter today with Big 12 rival TCU (4-2, 2-1 Big 12).
"I think he'll be there. The crutches made it hard on him because he couldn't get out of the way as fast as you need to if you're on the sidelines. But, now that the crutches are gone, I hoping to see more of him on the sidelines."
And, Mountaineers fans are hoping to see more of both Ferns when the 2017 season comes around.