By now everyone’s gotten a look at or a read on Josh Francis. Certainly, he’s been one of the better players on WVU’s defense this spring, especially early, though that he’s maintained a productive level cannot be ignored. He’s been talked about a ton, too, and that makes a lot of sense on a lot of levels. He’s new. He’s alarmingly fast at linebacker. He’s the junior college All-American. He’s always placed in the shadow of the other junior college guy, Bruce Irvin. He may be really good, too.

And so after 14 practices and aware the 15th — that all-important Gold-Blue Game Friday — won’t change much of what’s already been done, Francis was asked what he’s done and how he’s done it.

The answer was hidden in his reply.

He spoke generically about making the most of the opportunity, one he worked pretty hard at for 21/2 years at Lackawanna College, in Scranton, Pa. He knows and he says he’s extremely fortunate to have a place like WVU to call home not terrible long after FBS level was a far away option.

But the opportunity is not just a scholarship at a BCS school. It’s a lifestyle he sought and has secured. He’s lucky, he then said, to have things like free football gloves and he’s desperate to prove he’s worthy of those benefits

“We get gloves all the time,” he said. “At Lackawanna, you had to buy your own gloves and they’re $50, $60. Gloves wear out fast. You may have them for a week or so and then you’d have to keep going even though they had holes in them.”

He’s not petty. He’s making a point. WVU is a land of luxuries and free gloves whenever he wants, within reason, are among the delights of the major college football lifestyle. Ditto for cleats and T-shirts and wristbands and all the other accessories that were once scarce.

“I’m just saying I appreciate it more,” he said on the FieldTurf at Mountaineer Field Wednesday. “I appreciate every single blade of grass. If this was grass, I’d appreciate every piece of grass.”