One encouraging note for West Virginia University football fans was Dana Holgorsen's pre-spring comment on his Mountaineers' special teams.
Or, rather, the comment on what lately has been WVU's not-so-special teams.
Holgorsen said his staff would handle them differently. He said there would be new approaches.
That has to be encouraging for Mountaineer fans, who have suffered nightmares over the units in the past. The name of Joe DeForest still brings shivers to the WVU faithful. There was that period in 2013 and 2014 when six punts were fumbled. There were muffs and balls caught inside the 10-yard line. At one point in '14, things were so bad Holgorsen chose not to even FIELD a punt returner.
So last season, when Gary Jennings mostly just caught punts, Holgorsen pointed back to the old days and, in effect, said, "Remember when?"
Perhaps 2017, however, is when West Virginia moves past that and actually makes yardage. At the very least, Holgorsen and his staff are making changes in an attempt to do so. And those changes were needed.
First, understand that assistant Mark Scott is very knowledgeable about special teams. Yet now the duties are split between offense and defense. Perhaps that will help - because many of last season's numbers still weren't good.
The kickoff return defense was No. 103 nationally. Kicker Mike Molina converted 15 of 22 field goal attempts (68.2 percent), which ranked No. 84. And that punt return team? It finished No. 124 of 128 teams.
How bad has it been of late in regard to the latter? In 2015, WVU was No. 102 nationally in punt returns. In 2014, it was No. 127 of 128. In 2013, it was No. 121 of 125 teams. That's an average ranking of No. 118.5. The last time the Mountaineers were respectable in the area was 2012, when they finished the season No. 29.
This week, Scott was asked about special teams as a whole.
"I think, number one, we have to improve our punt return game," he said. "I think that's what we've struggled with over the last two to three years. We're going to open up the punt return competition and get as many guys reps as possible."
True freshman Tevin Bush, 5-foot-5, 168 pounds, from New Orleans, is getting a serious look at taking over for Jennings.
"Tevin Bush has looked good," Scott said. "He's so quick when you get the ball in his hands. Of course, it all changes once you go live and you've got guys breathing down your neck. But he's looked good so far."
Of those qualifying for NCAA punt return statistics last season, Jennings finished No. 63 of 64 players, above but Boise State's Akilian Butler. Jennings averaged 1.9 yards per return.
"Gary is dependable and makes good decisions," Scott said.
The assistant coach then continued - in detail - concerning the others on the unit.
"With the rest of the guys, whether we're going after a block, whether we're holding up, we've got to change up our looks to slow down a punt coverage team," Scott said. "That will change week to week because we see so many forms of punts.
"But we've got to get better at holding up when we're a hold-up team and, if we want to bring pressure, we've got to clean things up in how we attack teams - even in a pre-snap look - to slow teams down at the line of scrimmage. If we give a certain look and they know it's hold up, they can get out of there right now and it makes our job more difficult.
"So there are a lot of different things, from technique to what we show the opponents."
Get all that? Well, here's something more cut and dried: In kickoff coverage in 2017, WVU allowed 22.96 yards a return, which, again, was No. 103.
"We made wholesale changes to that early last season," Scott said. "We got better and better and better throughout the season, but there were too many peaks and valleys.
"We need consistency both with the kicks and with the coverage units - how we attack blocks, how we recognize certain schemes and get off blocks. We got better, but we still need to be more consistent."
Molina has been giving way on kickoffs this spring to scholarship redshirt freshman Jonn Young and Romney walk-on Evan Staley. "It's an open competition," Scott said.
As for kickoff returners, Jennings, Marcus Simms, Jovon Durante and Bush have all been getting looks.
As have all of WVU's special-teams schemes.
"We reached out and talked to different people," Scott said. "We studied a bunch of different teams that were some of the best in the country at kickoff coverage, at punt return. We're kind of adopting some of the things we learned off that to continue to progress."
At the very least, Mountaineer fans can be assured it's an area of emphasis.
Contact Mitch Vingle at 304-348-4827 or mitchvingle@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @MitchVingle.