MORGANTOWN — It was spring in the heat of summer, a burst of energy just when the days are beginning to drag, the warmest of smiles on the coldest of days.

Football season arrived in Morgantown.

For just a moment you could put behind you the thoughts of an NCAA investigation, of potential probation, for the sounds you were hearing were those of pads clashing with pads, of a coach named Bill Kirelawich imploring his defensive linemen in a language that only he can speak to work just a little bit harder.

It was Noel Devine running with a football under his arm, beginning what he hopes will be a Heisman Trophy season at West Virginia, admitting when asked if he ever thought about the award that “I’ve been thinking about it since I got here.”

The first practice of summer is the first day of Latin to a freshman quarterback like Barry Brunetti or Jeremy Johnson, a trip into a strange land where the language is different than anything he’s ever heard and where the book of plays that he reads seems at first to be nothing more than hieroglyphics.



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Before Coach Bill Stewart sent his team out onto the field for practice, he addressed the NCAA findings that the school had misused its graduate assistants and non-coaching personnel with the team.

“I addressed it very briefly last night. That is not on our mind. That has been addressed by director Oliver Luck and it is not what we’re thinking about right now,” Stewart said. “This football team, led by Bill Stewart and our staff and our seniors, are going to concentrate on the season and put full effort in that regard. We will not talk about it any more.”



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The first thing you notice is something you never expected to see. Out there at wide receiver, wearing the white of the offense, is a player wearing a No. 5 West Virginia jersey.

No one since Patrick White left for the Miami Dolphins had worn that jersey and you kind of expected that it would not be given out, but here was a promising wide receiver named Ivan McCarty, tall, lean and talented, wearing No. 5.

A year ago, the first year of the post-White era, no one was assigned No. 5.

“It was my decision along with some of my friends in the sports communication department, our staff and some of the seniors not to give the number out last year,” Coach Bill Stewart said. “We felt that was the right thing to do, to not wear Patrick White’s jersey last year.

“But as time moves on, graduation comes and goes, it’s time to push on with life and go. That No. 5 has been worn by several great players at West Virginia and it was just a year of honor and respect to Patrick White.

“Now it’s out there on the playing field again and hopefully another young man will take it and do great things.”

McCarty is a 6-3 receiver out of Miramar, Fla., who is the cousin of Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Ochocinco.



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Most of the attention for the day was focused on the pair of freshman quarterbacks — Barry Brunetti out of Memphis and Jeremy Johnson from Texas — and the expected starter Geno Smith, who is battling back from a foot injury that limited his offseason.

The plans are to give Smith 50 percent of the reps through camp with the two newcomers getting 25 percent each as they dip their toes into the waters of college football.

The education process is certainly in full swing, having begun as soon as they arrived here and were given the playbook.

“There’s going to be a lot of heads spinning going into that first scrimmage,” admitted quarterback coach Jeff Mullen.

It’s an interesting scenario that is playing out. Smith, of course, is the man but the two are fighting for position behind him with an eye eventually on beating him out and Mullen sounds like he can take it any way it plays out.

“They both can play. They are really good players,” Mullen said. “What you want to see after a week or 10 days is an understanding, the eyes stop spinning and a grasp of what’s going on. We’ll spoon feed them. We have to be really good and smart with those young kids.”

A coach with three quarterbacks understands he has to personalize the way he handles each one.

He says you learn a lot about them in the recruiting process.

“I got to meet the kids, their families, what kind of kids there were and how they would respond,” he said. “You have to find out the hot buttons and what to push and when.”



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There was a lot of focus on a fourth quarterback, Patrick White’s younger brother, Coley, who went through his first practice as a slot receiver, something he requested.

“Coley White worked very hard at slot today and caught the ball well. I’m proud of him. He’s giving great effort,” Stewart said.

If he can handle it the Mountaineers will have another weapon, an athlete who can catch the ball, run with it and who  could run reverse passes, which would give them both Coley White and Bradley Starks, another former quarterback, at a wideout.



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Quinton Spain, the man most people wanted to see simply because he is an offensive lineman who blocks out the sun at 6-6 and 330 pounds, and Dante Chambers, a fleet 6-0 wide receiver who was McCarty’s teammate at Miramar, were not on hand for the first day of workouts as they have gotten academic clearance from the NCAA Clearing House.

Another offensive lineman, Nick Kindler, who stands 6-6 and weighs 285, is due in camp in a couple of days to rehab an injury. The Mountaineers think enough of him and believe he will be ready early enough that they are counting him against the number of players they can have in camp.

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