Out of nowhere a few days ago, I got this weird revelation as I listened to Bill Stewart speak. His spring game would be the last one in the Big East … and probably the last among any name on his schedule.

His team started either later or at about the same time as many of those same schools, so surely he and his staff of information-gatherers were learning about what these opponents were doing and what form they were taking.

And wouldn’t that be a nice head start? There are three new opponents on the schedule and one has a new coach. Three Big East teams and Marshall also have new leadership. Some of the possible Big East favorites have small to severe personnel overhauls. News clippings, practice reviews, spring games, they’d all be useful for WVU to use in the offseason.

Brilliant idea, yes? Not exactly — though still appealing.

Stewart and his staff will begin reconnaissance soon, though, and some help has already arrived.

“I’ve got the LSU paper already,” Stewart said. “Somebody sent me that. People send me all that stuff and I read it all. The LSU writer had a big writeup after their game.”

When Stewart was traveling with his son, Blaine, for a baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, S.C., he picked up a copy of the newspaper tracking nearby Coastal Carolina’s spring.

Those articles, as well as stat sheets and other reviews from other teams, will be posted for the Mountaineers to see on their trips through the Puskar Center.

“I want the players to know who we’re going to play,” Stewart said. “If we play them, we’re going to learn about them. Everything’s on the Internet now. We’ll get starting lineups and everything.

“I’d like to hear from different people and we’ll check out who did what stat-wise and get a better idea.”