MORGANTOWN - Ye olde notebook:
n WVU fullback Eli Wellman grins when talking about his team's 2016 offensive line.
"Hog daddies," he calls them.
"I'm excited about the O-line this season," Wellman said. "We have experience with everybody coming back. I think they're ready to go."
It figured that Mountaineer fans would find out soon enough. West Virginia is a double-digit favorite in its home opener against Missouri, but the Tigers' strength was supposed to be its defensive line.
Supposed to be. Mizzou was getting back ex-standout defensive tackle Harold Brantley, a senior who was returning after missing all of last season because of an auto accident. Then, this past week, he was declared ineligible.
The Tigers had Walter Brady returning after leading SEC freshmen last season with 12.5 tackles for loss. He was half of a dynamic pass rush, along with Charles Harris. Then Brady was dismissed.
Mizzou does, however, return Harris and Terry Beckner Jr., along with Marcell Frazier.
"They'll be a good test for us," said WVU right tackle Marcell Lazard. "They're an SEC team and every SEC team will give you a good game. We're expecting a good one."
And what of his fellow "hog daddies"?
"Everybody is saying we have experience," Lazard said. "But experience doesn't matter unless you go out and practice using it. But we have a close-knit group of guys. We have a whole room of guys that really get along and trust each other. That goes a long way."
Of the younger Mountaineer linemen, by the way, Lazard pointed to 6-foot-5, 316-pound Josh Sills of Byesville, Ohio.
"Sills is doing a good job," Lazard said. "He's young, but is doing a really good job."
n A topic around the state this past week was the fine crop of FBS football talent in the state - mostly headed out of state.
I wondered about the takes of two WVU players originally from the Mountain State. First, I asked linebacker Justin Arndt about the burgeoning crop of talent.
"It's awesome," said the Martinsburg native. "When I came here there were none. The only one getting recruited out of West Virginia was [Ryan] Switzer. Now to see all these kids getting accolades and the respect they deserve is great."
And of their choices to leave West Virginia?
"Hey, some people have to learn," Arndt said. "They'll see when they get there I guess. I can't imagine not being in my home state."
Wellman, a Huntington native, chimed in as well.
"I don't like it, obviously," he said. "I love this place. This is the only place I'd be. But some kids didn't grow up with that West Virginia mindset and have been fans of other teams.
"For me, it was a no-brainer. But if you don't want to be a part of it, then go somewhere else."
n Wellman has been sharing fullback duties with Mike Ferns, the Michigan transfer and brother of four-star linebacker signee Brendan Ferns.
Could be a nice 1-2 punch for West Virginia.
"I think it will work well," Wellman said. "Ferns got moved here last year. I think knowing what I do will help him get better. I'm not new to what I'm doing."
If you can believe it, Wellman is already a junior.
"This year should be good for me," he said. "I know what I'm doing. I can concentrate on finishing blocks rather than assignments."
He expects one of the fullbacks to be in "about 40 percent" of the offensive plays and both in "10 to 20 percent" more.
Also, in Friday's column, I mentioned varying appraisals of tight end Trevon Wesco. Some believe he's a beast. Some believe he's not ready yet.
So I put it to Wellman. If Wesco doesn't work out, might Ferns be moved back to tight end?
"I don't know; it depends," he said. "Moving from tight end to fullback isn't that big of a difference though. We've done it in the past. It's still in our brains. It would only take a day or two to get back into it."
He pointed out Wesco only recently hit Morgantown.
n Spare quote anyone? Here's a comment from defensive end Noble Nwachukwu on bookend starter Christian Brown.
"Christian is a strong, run-stopper D-lineman," Nwachukwu said. "He can pass rush when he wants to pass rush, but mostly he's moving guys around."
n And finally ...
An apparent offensive objective for WVU this summer has been to widen the pocket for quarterback Skyler Howard. Mountaineer head coach Dana Holgorsen said it became a priority "when I didn't call a dropback pass for, like, nine weeks in a row [last season]."
The coach said he ended up calling "a lot of play action, downfield stuff and screens."
"We were a very, very, very below average dropback passing team," he said. "I want to be able to throw the ball better."
Much of that has to do with better QB protection. The task of improving that has fallen to first-season assistant Joe Wickline, who works with the tackles and, sometimes, tight ends.
"Really we're just taking what [fellow assistant] Ron [Crook] has already done and tweaking some things," Wickline said. "In any protection scenario the inside guys have the depth of the pocket. They're responsible for keeping the pocket short and shallow and not allowing push inside.
"Tackles have the responsibility of the width of the pocket, so we might tilt their shoulders a little bit. We may expand their sets a little bit. We may challenge them to be a little bit quicker. Basically, just tweaking some things."
A little X's and O's for your Sunday.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.