You kind of get the feeling as the clock ticks us closer to the start of the season that you can actually hear time running out on Ryan Nehlen. He is, after all, the walk-on receiver from the local high school, the one with the familiar surname, the one with the story and the spring success we’ve seen a lot of kids try to take and turn into something good, only to see it end so unspectacularly.

The thing is, the closer we do get to Sept. 4, the harder it is to shake the feeling: Ryan Nehlen didn’t disappear, can’t be chased away, won’t be pushed aside.

He’s still in the duel for the outside Z receiver spot with Ivan McCartney, and Dana Holgorsen has had a lot of fun watching that go down as it has, but whatever the result, Nehlen has a spot. It’s silly to expect otherwise. He’s been too good and had too many things said about him for too long now for it to happen any other way, even if college football dictates McCartney should win the competition.

He’s from Miramar, Fla., where he was Class 6A All-State first team. He caught 10 touchdown passes as a senior and made the U.S. Army All-American Bowl.

Nehlen is from Morgantown. He played at University High and was Class AAA All-State first team. He did catch 16 touchdown passes in his final season.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound McCartney counts NFL receiver Chad Ochocinco as his cousin.

The 6-2, 205-pound Nehlen is the equipment manager’s son and Hall of Fame coach Don Nehlen’s grandson.

One has a 39.5-inch vertical leap, cleared 10 feet, 6 inches in the broad jump and runs faster than many others on the team.

The other is Ivan McCartney.

Surprised? Join the club.

“His true freshman year and my redshirt freshman year, he was going against (cornerback) Ellis Lankster in practice,” WVU cornerback Keith Tandy remembered.  “They threw a deep ball and he went up and caught it over top of Ellis.

“Ellis came over to the sideline and said, ‘That kid can jump.’ That’s when I knew.”