The fifth day of preseason practice was to unfold this way for the Mountaineers:

7:00 am: Continental breakfast
8:00: Team/special teams meeting
8:30: Position meeting/walkthrough
10:00: Special teams walkthrough
10:30: Brunch
2:30 pm: Lunch
3:00: Team meeting/Speaker (Troy Vincent)
3:30: Position meeting
5:00: Runthrough
5:30: Stretch
8:00: Dinner

There’s something missing. The actual practice follows the stretch. Long day, yes? By the looks of the schedule, camp is what we thought it was. “It’s supposed to be hell,” Bruce Irvin said.

It’s not and for a variety of reasons. I see lots of meals and some time between activities, and though it is a long day, it’s with a pace everyone finds palatable.

Featured is the late start to practice, and usually on the grass that’s kinder to the body. It’s still hot, so it’s not a way to beat the heat, but it is a way to beat something the player and the coaches wanted to conquer. WVU isn’t starting in the early hours of the morning and fighting through the cobwebs.

“I know I’m a lot happier,” Dana Holgorsen said. “My mind works better as the day progresses. I think their bodies work better as the day progresses.”

And Holgorsen has them working, has their minds and bodies working, throughout the day. Watch them practice, though, and they don’t do a ton of running. They run, but with a purpose, like getting from station to station as fast as possible. We haven’t seen a lot of sprints for punishment or conditioning. And what we don’t see follows a similar plan.

“I just think it’s a different time,” Holgorsen said. “The way camp used to be run was you were trying to get the guys in shape. You tried to play a lot of football and get them in shape. It’s a little different now due to the fact 90 percent of these guys have been here all summer getting in shape. Now it’s time to get better at football.

“We’re going to play a lot of football, but when it’s time to play football, let’s play football. When it’s not time to play football, let’s not wear them out mentally and physically.”