MORGANTOWN — Reports that they were scrambling the jets at the Air National Guard base up Pittsburgh way on Monday were not true, but they were believable the way Corey Smith was launching punts into the bright summer sky all day.

They were high enough to be registered on radar and far too long for anyone to believe that they were simply the result of kicking a football. They were more like missiles than punts, perfect spirals that seemed to defy gravity and sent returners scurrying back toward their own goal line to make a circus catch, if they could get there at all.

West Virginia University came into camp having graduated one of the better punters it ever had in Scott Kozlowski, a senior who averaged 44.4 yards a punt with only seven touchbacks in 64 punts. If the numbers did not match Todd Sauerbrun’s school record of 48.6 yards a punt, it must be remembered that he was, perhaps, the greatest punter in the history of college football and had a long NFL career.

With that void in mind, the Mountaineers lined up a pair of punters with large potential in the aforementioned Smith, who came out of Musselman High across the state and headed down to play for Nick Saban in Alabama, and Gregg Pugnetti, another scholarship punter from Virginia.

Certainly one would work out, but it appears that both are doing so, each launching balls that sail off into the distance, soaring as if they should be trailed by a tail of fire.

Smith, however, had a magnificent day on Monday, leading coach Bill Stewart to allow that “he’s got a chance,” which is about as committed as he will become this early in camp with two potential punting stars on hand.

Smith would only say that the day was “nothing special,” which was a strange statement, considering the reaction of the returners to his punts, all of them taking eight, 10, 12 steps back from where they had set up, sometimes having to make a difficult catch of the punt.

And we’re not talking about walk-on returners; these were the likes of Brandon Hogan and Jock Sanders.

“It’s fun when you hit a few good punts, see the guys backpedaling. You take that maybe they were up a little short, not knowing how far you can kick it,” Smith said.

Smith brings something more than a strong leg to the job. He brings a smile and a winning personality, a certain kind of flakiness that you come to expect from kickers.

You can take it back to Garo Yepremian himself, the Armenian tie-maker from Cypress whose lasting claim to fame was the worst pass every thrown in a Super Bowl after a field goal was blocked.

Kickers and punters often see things from a different perspective than others, perhaps because they have too much time on their hands. Certainly, Sauerbrun was something of a flake and Pat McAfee, who went from WVU to the Super Bowl with the Indianapolis Colts last year, was another free spirit who saw the world in colors that have not yet been invented.

Smith fits the mold.

“Everyone is unique. I feel sometimes I try to keep things loose with the guys, making a joke or doing something funny. Knowing when to do it is key,” he said.

Smith’s ability to punt in the style West Virginia prefers, something called a roll kick, which has the punter take the snap then move a couple of steps to his right to get off the kick, came about quite by accident.

He had seen the Mountaineers do it while at Musselman High and decided one day in practice to give it a try.

“I was fooling around in practice one day and hit a couple of good ones,” he recalled. “I talked to one of my coaches and said, ‘Maybe it’s something we want to look at.’ I hit a few and they decided to try it.

“I guess you could say it was dumb luck. I taught myself how to do it.”

The roll punt has changed over the last couple of years. It started off as a low line drive that would roll but it has evolved into something majestic.

“We roll out now, but they also want hang time and distance and, yeah, direction. I guess they may want us to go down field and down it, too,” Smith said.

That Alabama would have been interested in him and brought him in gives an idea of his potential, although he will give you no real idea what happened at the school to make him leave.

“Let’s just talk about WVU,” he said. “I feel like I’m past that.”

Pressed for some form of explanation, Smith delivered this:

“I wanted to get back home. I saw a great opportunity back here,” he said.

If Smith becomes the punter WVU hopes, it might be an even trade with Alabama, West Virginia sending them Nick Saban, Alabama sending Corey Smith back home.

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