It seems like everyone has that friend who was an outcast in high school but morphed into the most popular kid at his or her college.

Think of a gangly, pimply teenage guy who added some muscle when he went away for school, lost the acne and suddenly became a ladies’ man. Or maybe there’s a girl you knew in high school who was too shy to speak her mind, but she’s since developed more confidence and seems to command the attention of every person in every room she enters.

That’s the kind of transformation the West Virginia football team has made since last year. And the Terrapins football team was the bully who wouldn’t stop picking on the innocent and naive Mountaineers a season ago.

So when West Virginia visits College Park on Saturday, it’ll have a chance to showcase just how much has changed in the past 12 months.

Last season, the Mountaineers began life without star quarterback Geno Smith and dynamic wide receiver Tavon Austin, two current NFL players who carried the West Virginia offense from 2010-12. Last year was only Dana Holgorsen’s second season as coach, and without the two offensive stalwarts on the roster, the team looked immature and incomplete.

The Terps took advantage of their border-state rivals by dismantling West Virginia, 37-0, in Baltimore on Sept. 21, 2013. And yeah, it was as ugly as the score makes it sound. The Mountaineers turned over the ball over six times, the Terps held a 30-0 lead at halftime and West Virginia failed to generate any hint of momentum in a game played through a torrential downpour.

West Virginia wobbled out of M&T Bank Stadium after the knockout blow, while the Terps bused back to College Park to celebrate the most complete and convincing win of coach Randy Edsall’s tenure.

But all that seems so, so long ago.

“They played well against Alabama and gave them everything that they wanted,” Edsall said of the Mountaineers. “Their quarterback Clint Trickett is playing at a real high level for them. They’re a much better team than they were a year ago.”

After finishing last season 4-8, West Virginia seems to have found an identity early in the 2014 campaign. The Mountaineers gave perennial powerhouse Alabama all it could handle in a 33-23 week one loss, then eviscerated Towson, 54-0, last week.

Trickett, a transfer from Florida State, wasn’t ready to helm Holgorsen’s high-octane offense last season, but he’s benefited from a year of experience in the system.

Trickett has completed 75.3 percent of his passes in two games this season, averaging more than 350 passing yards per game, and has thrown three touchdowns to zero interceptions. Yes, he sliced up FCS Towson, but Trickett also threw for 365 yards against the vaunted Alabama defense.

“Defensively, we got a challenge, a big challenge, this week,” Edsall said.

The Terps, meanwhile, aren’t riding quite as high as they were when they marched off that rainy field in Baltimore last year. They finished 7-6 last season, and though the Terps are 2-0 this year, they haven’t looked as sharp as the Mountaineers have.

After blowing out an overmatched FCS James Madison team to open the season, the Terps struggled to get going in Tampa last weekend against South Florida. Edsall’s team committed six turnovers and had to rely on a blocked punt to slip out of Raymond James Stadium with a narrow 24-17 win.

Quarterback C.J. Brown has struggled with efficiency, and the Terps’ offensive playmakers haven’t made a large impact thus far.

“This is probably one of the best teams we’ve played,” Brown said. “We’re not looking at past records or even to last year. We understand this is going to be a tough-fought battle.”

The Terps enter Friday morning as slight favorites over the Mountaineers in Las Vegas, and that’s probably how it should be.

Don’t expect another 30-point blowout, though. West Virginia is a different team, a more mature and cohesive group that won’t shy away from the test in Byrd Stadium.

As for the Terps, their first two games failed to provide a conclusive suggestion as to how they’ve developed since last season. But Saturday’s visit from the dweeb-turned-stud should show just where the former bully stands.