The Bunker Hill native and University of Alabama departee who you may know from 14-, 14-, 27- and 32-yard punts and the lead role on the shaky kickoff coverage team, is apparently out at WVU.

“Punt team, we only had one opportunity [against Bowling Green], but it was a repeat of what we saw last week,” head coach Dana Holgorsen said Tuesday.

In Smith’s place, redshirt freshman Michael Molinari will get the first start of his career at punter. To this point, the Parkersburg, W.Va. native has been the team’s holder, but has not gotten a single rep with the punt team.

“We’re going to let Mike punt it this week, just to kind of see how he does,” says Holgorsen. “In practice, we clearly think Corey was better, so we did that, but Corey’s struggling a little bit with it right now, so we’ll get Mike out there and see what he does. Corey will still be there if we need him and if we’re not liking what we see out of Mike, we’ll put Corey in there. It may be like that the rest of the year.”

Tyler Bitancurt, who has kicked off just 21 times in two-plus seasons, will pick up where he left off against Bowling Green.

“We had no issue whatsoever putting him on the kickoff team,” Holgorsen said. “He’s been doing that in practice all year.”

Josh Lider was WVU’s top kickoff specialist in 2009 and handled it 48 times. Bitancurt did it 19 times as the coaching staff varied its tactics with a kickoff defense that finished ranked No. 105 nationally.

Corey Smith took all 64 kickoffs last season and averaged 62.2 yards with eight touchbacks. He kept the job this season while adding punting. Smith has struggled with punts the past two games with kicks of 14, 14, 27 and 32 yards. The kickoff defense has allowed a 99-yard touchdown and a 72-yard return the past two games.

Bitancurt’s two kickoffs averaged 59 yards – a yard better than Smith’s. The first went to Bowling Green’s 1-yard line and was returned to the 30. The second went to Bowling Green’s 21 and was returned five yards.