MORGANTOWN — It really struck Neal Brown when he saw Rodney Gallagher out of the environment in which he would have him performing at West Virginia University.

He was still recruiting the star at Laurel Highlands in Uniontown, Pa., but Brown was the West Virginia football coach and Gallagher was on the basketball court at Pitt in the high school playoffs.

“I knew Rodney was special when he knocked down a bunch of free throws to win the game,” Brown said.

It was very similar to Bob Huggins’ discovery of Jevon Carter in Chicago playing AAU basketball. Huggins was there early, 8 a.m. maybe, and there was Carter, out there shooting with no one else around. A short while later, they began playing and while everyone in AAU ball was working on spectacular offensive moves, Carter was working on his defense.

See, you can see an athlete’s skill set. You can time him and measure him and watch him lift, but what you can’t do is look inside him.

The special ones, though, are open books, and Brown saw there was this drive that Gallagher had, this dedication to his teammates that he wanted to stay with the team until after the playoffs before heading off onto his college career.

He could have played basketball, but Gallagher was heading for football.

And he could have been selfish when Brown came to him after last season and asked him if rather than concentrating just on offense, which is where he figured to have his best shot at a career, if he might not split time on defense, too.

That’s the kind of thing you dream about in a kid, and Gallagher began splitting time on defense as he learned the nuances of offensive football in a new system at a new position, that being a receiver.

He grew last season as Brown simply tried to find ways to get the ball into his hands because he is a playmaker but he wasn’t physically ready yet to be a starter and was so new at the position that he was existing on his athleticism without having a complete understanding of the position.

Now we fast forward to Saturday at Mountaineer Field. Gallagher had a big-time challenge and would wind up the hero of a 32-28 victory over Kansas. WVU was banged up on offense, Justin Robinson and Preston Fox both were injured at wide receiver. Brown knew Gallagher would have to play an increased number of snaps on offense, plus the fact that Fox is the punt returner but probably wouldn’t be able to do that, too.

“Coach Brown called me in during the week and told me that he wanted me to play more snaps on offense this week so I wouldn’t be playing defense,” Gallagher said. “From Day 1, I appreciate Coach Brown so much because he just keeps giving me opportunities to showcase my skill set and athleticism.”

At a key moment in the game, Gallagher put together a 16-yard punt return, filling in for Fox, changing field position. He was targeted on pass routes from Garrett Greene, but the featured receivers were Hudson Clement, who caught 7 for 150 yards, and Traylon Ray, who had big moments, none bigger against Kansas than taking a wide receiver reverse — or so he made it look — and turning it into a key two-point conversion as the Mountaineers were erasing an 11-point deficit in their final two possessions.

Ray turned it into a pass to Kole Taylor, the 6-foot-7 tight end to make it a 3-point game.

The seconds were ticking off, though, but Greene led the Mountaineers down the field with his arm and his legs until they reached the point where they had this pass they felt would work. It was a win or lose situation but Brown didn’t hesitate calling it.

He’d seen the free throw shooting and Gallagher was the receiver.

He’d not yet scored a touchdown as a Mountaineer and it had been a long and trying day, complete with a two-hour rain delay. There were 52,000 people there and a national television audience.

Greene took the snap, used his legs to create space as Gallagher went across the field, took the ball inside the Kansas 5 and fought into the end zone.

West Virginia had a 32-28 lead with 26 seconds left and maybe the most important victory of Brown’s career, considering a loss and they would have been 1-3 and would have had two narrow losses in two weeks.

“Rodney was the first read,” Brown explained. “We ran the play earlier on a third down, down in the red zone. Greene threw it to Gallagher, and he shouldn’t have, it wasn’t the correct progression. He really should have came back to (sophomore wide receiver Traylon Ray) on a curl, but that was the right one.

“They had been playing a lot of man in both of those drives. I really called the play thinking they were going to play man, but we had zone answers and he went to the right spot. That’s really a difficult throw. That’s something he’s gotten a lot better at with some back shoulder throws that he threw there, and that was big-time.”

Take a moment to think about it, though. Greene has thrown a lot of touchdown passes. This was Rodney Gallagher’s first.

It was a tough play.

“It was a play we did in practice with me and GG,” Gallagher said, referring to Greene. “I was already used to it and I knew what I was expecting because of the way the defense played. When the ball was in the air I just had to be patient and get my hands together and make a play after it was caught.”

Instead of chirping like so many do, Gallagher deferred to Greene for making the real play.

“Garrett is a great quarterback. I think he’s underrated. When he escapes the pocket, he’s special. He can create so many plays. When we play teams they are scared of him running the ball, so that makes more opportunities for receivers to make plays.”

“I was just super excited, my first one,” Gallagher said. “It’s hard to take all of it in. That was one of the biggest moments of my life and I’m glad I got in for the game-winner.”