The second day of pads and contact at WVU today and many Mountaineers, like Alex Burdette, a walk-on safety from South Carolina, were throwing blows. All in all, a tough day for the inanimate objects on the practice field.

If you’re keeping score at home, Lil Wayne opened practice today and the jumping jacks went just fine. And then there was even more special teams work. The field goal teams, those being the holder, kicker and ones who block for the kick and the ones trying to block the kick, worked on the far end of the field. On the near end were the punt returners: Tavon Austin,  J.D. Woods, Brodrick Jenkins, Devon Brown and then two surprises. Stedman Bailey and freshman running back Andrew Buie joined the mix.

That preceded a robust kickoff return workout, including blocking drills and then a set with the return unit and the coverage unit — and  I think Jenkins is going to be an asset in the return game.

This is getting tiresome to read, I’m sure, but I do wonder if you can say it enough: This is a lot of special teams work, and a lot of detail, this early in practice. And it’s a necessity — you have to do it and every coach fears a special teams catastrophe in the first game more than any other other catastrophe because it’s typically practiced least. Holgorsen told me on the first day the plan was to go like this for 15 days. Then they’ll tone it down and begin regular season preparations.

When they do get to offense, I’d expect to see more of this.

The Mountaineers were working on swing passes on one end of the field. It went on for a few repetitions, but Holgorsen was growing frustrated with the way some of his receivers were running up the field far too early. Notice how he was OK with the second receiver, Dustin Garrison, missing the pass. He ran the route properly. That, it would seem, mattered more for the purpose of practice.

Still, it’s not an easy throw. Holgorsen stressed that and told the receivers they had to be accelerating through the pass as it hit the spot, which, in this drill, was to be on the thick yard-line. So he jumped in and acted out the throw and the catch for the assembled quarterbacks and running backs. A play later …

… Vernard Roberts nailed it. The rest of the drill went swimmingly.

As for other news, Tyler Urban remained in the green jersey, again for precautionary reasons, and … well, that’s really it. And it all may very well pale in comparison to the major news.

Nothing Tuesday is bigger than the announcement Niles Eggleston is leaving his post as the executive director of the  Mountaineer Athletic Club — and just as I was beginning to spell his last name without error. He’ll be heading to Rochester, N.Y., as the senior assistant vice president for medical center advancement at Rochester University and Strong Memorial Hospital.

It’s a personal, family-related decision for Eggleston. His sister passed away in October after a lengthy health problem and she was actually treated at Strong Memorial. His father moved there some time before that to be closer to the sister and noq\w both of Eggleston’s parents are in Rochester, plus his grandfather and other family members.

He and his wife of six years have a 5-year-old and 2-year-old son and are expecting a third child eight months from now.

“Athletics, a lot of what we do occurs in the evening and on weekends,” he said.

Eggleston, who has been at WVU since 2006 and in his current position since taking over in an interim capacity in 2008, will leave some time before the first game of the regular season. There will be no interim position before a full-time replacement is hired.

Can’t overstate the loss for Oliver Luck, the athletic department and the university. Very dedicated to and really good at his job, but just a nice, normal, selfless guy. He goes out of his way to give others credit when many others in his position, in his profession, would not and do not.

Thumbnail legacy: The MAC is in far, far better shape as he exits than when he entered and he leaves nothing unfinished. Also worth noting, the MAC has generated a record high in donations the past four years and seen the final figures jump from $13.85 million to $21.54 million. The 2010-11 fiscal year was the second year in a five-year plan to get to $30 million.

“The goals will not change,” he said. “We want to raise $30 million — and double what we were raising —  in five years. I think that’s still feasible. I think we can still accomplish that. Of course, the market needs to do a little better than it has the last few days, but I think the tools are in place, the foundation has been laid and certainly the coaches and the infrastructure continue to be developed to help us accomplish that.”

Evening post-press conference update

Finally, Holgorsen seemed pleased by what he’d just witnessed in practice when he met with the media for a little more than 10 minutes Tuesday. “Another day, another A,” he said.

He singled out Buie and Dustin Garrison for good performances and said Roberts and Trey Johnson were doing well, too. That’s a wonderful news for the running back situation, but also a stark contrast to something that’s growing to bother Holgorsen.

“The level of competition there is making those guys better, which, unfortunately, doesn’t exist on the offensive line,” he said. “We’ve got the first five guys up front and then we have five guys who have no interest whatsoever in beating out the five guys in front of them.”

Holgorsen was then prompted to discuss Devon Brown and Steve Paskorz … and maybe there’s a reason he hasn’t touched on them as of yet.

“DEVin, DAYvon, DEvon, DuhVON. I don’t know. We call him No. 4,” Holgorsen said of daVON. “But he’s repped a ton and caught probably as many balls in skelly as anybody we’ve got. He’ll provide depth, if not start.”

By any name, he’s impressed by Brown, who, you must remember, can help in special teams, too. “He’s a pleasant surprise,” Holgorsen said.

As for the other guy, the contender for playing time at middle linebacker?

“I don’t know how to pronounce the other guy’s name either,” Holgorsen said. “He’s the Notre Dame guy.”

That’d be Pass-KORZ. Honest. “That’s not anywhere close to how it looks on paper,” Holgorsen said.

He called Paskorz a good kid who’s trying hard, but as is the case with most evaluations on defense, and, really, in general right now, Holgorsen was restrained, and for good reason.

“It’s a little easier to get out there and play receiver when you’re doing 7-on-7 all summer and learn it as opposed to being out there in a physical setting and your job is straight ahead, be a plugger and make tackles,” Holgorsen said. “And he’s got to go through a whole bunch of coaching form Coach Casteel before he knows where he’s going.”

Later, as part an impromptu and delayed extension to an answer he was giving about the surging confidence of Geno Smith, Holgorsen said, “Paul’s completion percentage is a lot higher than Geno’s after four days.” I can’t remember any coach every sharing that detail with us. And just as you and I were getting excited, “Bruce Irvin’s pretty good, too.”