MORGANTOWN — It started early on Saturday morning, really, before the real heat of the day had begun. Shadows were long, even if the two central characters, Noel Devine and Jock Sanders, were short.

A football season that many thought they would never see had begun, these two Florida munchkins who surprised many when they decided to come back for another season, a final season, a senior season. Much has been made, of course, of Devine’s return for he is the player standing on the doorstep of the Heisman, but the truth is that Jock Sanders is a key player for the Mountaineers, too, as a slotback and kick returner.

And like Devine, the story of his return is captivating.

“I thought about leaving, but look at Pat White. He came back. It’s the experience of a lifetime,” he said recently at the Big East Media Day gathering in Newport, R.I. “Next year is all business. It’s the NFL. This year is more for friends, more a time to share, more a time to cherish the moments.”

It is about team and friendship and memories and, along with it, getting a degree.

That degree, Jock Sanders admitted, was the furthest thing from his mind when he came out of St. Petersburg, Fla., to attend WVU.

“When you first leave high school you are not really thinking about a degree,” he said. “You are thinking you got a football scholarship. You’re there to play football. But now I have a chance to do both. I think that’s the best thing that happened to me so far.

“I have three kids. Football doesn’t last forever. It’s about knowing I have that piece of paper. You can take away football, but you can’t take away that degree.”

Go on rewind for a moment to the words that fell so matter-of-factly from Sanders’ lips … “I have three kids.”

Not out of college yet, barely of drinking age, and he has three children while in college.

The third child, Jakeryah, is eight months old and was born on a rather trying day in Sanders’ life. His oldest child is a daughter, Jakaijhai, 4, while he also has another son, Jock Jr., who also is 4.

West Virginia was in Tampa to face South Florida last year. It was a dismal game for them, losing to the Bulls, 30-19, with Sanders not contributing a whole lot, perhaps because the birth of his daughter was on his mind.

He stayed behind after the game and she was born. A football loss didn’t seem to mean as much then.

“Even though it was a devastating loss, I could enjoy my family,” he said.

And now the responsibility of having three children has changed him, made him more responsible, more serious, helped him in his role as senior leader.

“I know I have to be a role model for my kids. They look up to me and follow in my footsteps. It’s like with the team. I have to help lead the team. It goes hand in hand,” he said.

The players, he says, are easier to lead than children.

“They catch on real quick, faster than a child would,” Sanders observed. “Us being so vocal, it’s all business and they are on the same stage we are on.”

The decision to stay was not an easy one for Sanders and Devine. Both have children, both are hardly what you’d call rich so the allure of the NFL’s money was difficult to turn down.

But college had given them something they’d never really had before in their lives, a certain stability and sense of belonging, security for at least one more year.

It was a chance to accomplish something that had eluded them for a long time.

“Being seniors, we knew people would listen. It’s that senior leadership. We talk about how everyone is going to feed off us on the offensive side,” Sanders said.

Coach Bill Stewart had a lot to do with the return of Sanders and Devine. He didn’t hand them any BS, just put it on the line for them.

“We were truthful. I told them we put the feelers out like we do every year, and they were projected from the second round to the fifth round. I told Noel and Jock that if it was the fourth or fifth round, I don’t know if that’s smart [to go into the draft]. If it’s the second round, you have to go.”

They talked long and hard about it, deciding not to play a game Russian roulette with their futures the way Major Harris, who just was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, had done.

“It shows you the trust Noel has in the program,” Stewart said. “Why would a Noel and Jock come back? They want to graduate. They will be the first in their families, but more important there’s something about being a senior on a college football team. There’s something about being Patrick White that stays. He could have gone. They never have experienced that before and never will again.”

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.