MORGANTOWN — Most teams would have been hurt by the power outage that hit Milan Puskar Stadium on Friday morning, the second-to-last day of summer camp, forcing cancelation of the morning meetings and workouts, but considering that the Mountaineers are anything but a power football team it didn’t lose its spark … bada boom!

What the morning time off meant was that the players’ morning hour of intense grilling by the media horde would be postponed a day, giving the players a rare chance to listen to Hoppy Kercheval on the radio.

Right!

In truth, the break in the normal schedule offered at least one introspective journalistic vagabond, while munching down a Panera’s bear claw with a cup of hot, black coffee, to spend some time thinking about a number of things coach Dana Holgorsen had said the day before.

Without meaning to do so, Holgorsen actually let the outside world in on what really goes on in a coach’s head at this time of year and why he does certain things in camp.

For example, on the surface, WVU comes into the year relatively set on offense with really 10 starters back, counting the return of the injured guard Josh Jenkins. So solid are the veteran receivers that Holgorsen was willing to name Stedman Bailey, Tavon Austin and J.D. Woods as starters and did not hesitate including young freshman sensation Jordan Thompson along with them.

You know Geno Smith is your quarterback, and Holgorsen said what everyone really knew when he said that senior Shawne Alston had emerged as the the No. 1 running back.

Asked what he had done to earn that nod, Holgorsen pulled no punches.

“Leadership. He’s very physical and tough. He’s in shape and healthy. He’s really playing well. He doesn’t necessarily have the best parts in the world, so we need to protect his good man parts,” he said.

But this preseason camp really wasn’t about offense, was it? It was coming off that 70-point game in the Orange Bowl and other than reminding them in which direction the goal line was, there wasn’t a whole lot to do.

Defensively, though, was where the coaching was going to have to come in, and things are still far from being settled there. The evidence Holgorsen offered in this area was the situation the defensive line is in.

“We’re still repping about 15 guys on the d-line, which you can’t do that. You have to narrow it down to the guys you feel good about playing and practicing to where you can see guys separate themselves,” he said.

This is not to say that any coach discourages competition. In truth, they really welcome it, even if they have a superstar starting at the position. Rest assured there is fierce competition between backup quarterbacks Paul Millard and Ford Childress, each trying to impress the coaching staff while Geno Smith mourns the passing of his grandmother in Florida, hoping to get the jump when the job comes open next year.

“The No. 1 motivational factor for anybody ever is competition,” Holgorsen said. “It’s either yours, or somebody is going to take it from you. The more competition that can exist amongst the specific positions, the more you’re going to get out of it, the more effort you’re going to get out of it, the more focus and the more want.”

So now you know why one day in practice a player comes from out of the blue to the top of the depth chart. You know that come opening day he isn’t going to be starting, but it doesn’t hurt for the coach to get another player’s attention, run him with the twos just to let him know that could happen if he doesn’t play as hard and smart as he can.

The coaches will be busy over the weekend and early next week finalizing their depth chart, putting together what they hope will be the starting lineup and rotation in the Sept. 1 Marshall opener.

“We’ll work towards getting it settled on Tuesday,” Holgorsen said. “Sunday will be a lifting and running day, and Monday will be a day off, because it’s the first day of school. We’ll regroup and get it relatively in order for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. We don’t want to go into the real game week having to rep three people at each position; you can’t do it. I don’t mind repping three at each position next week, but then the next week we have to narrow it down to who will play.”

And that’s how close we are to playing some football.

Email Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter@bhertzel.