Slight news from Dana Holgorsen yesterday. Barring injuries and subsequent necessity, January enrollee Ford Childress will redshirt in 2012.

“It’s in the best interest of the football team to do that, just because Paul is so far ahead with all the reps he got,” Holgorsen said. “We’ll let Ford absorb it and get a bunch of reps this year and then we’ll let him come in and compete for the job next year.”

This doesn’t surprise or alarm me, not even with the grayshirt coming before the redshirt. It seems apparent WVU has more faith in Millard right now, which isn’t a slight against Childress and only makes sense since Millard was a January guy last year and did play a good bit last season. It wasn’t always great, but the coaches always said he was ready to go. Plus, he was there. Childress was not and while that’s nothing he can control, it is something that matters to the coaching staff.

Common sense, really, same as saying everything changes if Eu or Millard gets hurt next fall. Childress then has to be ready. I even wonder if it’s Geno who gets hurt if Childress then has to shed a redshirt just to get him in a game in case Millard can’t cut it. Old rule about quarterbacks: If you’ve got two, you’ve got none.

And then there’s how this applies to recruiting, which is the inevitable circle back maneuver involved with almost all football conversations now. In the fall of 2013, Millard is a junior and Childress is a freshman and the competition is open. WVU would also, ideally, have a quarterback from the 2013 recruiting class who, like Childress, would redshirt. Thus far, no one has committed, but the Mountaineers are working a half-a-dozen or so guys, I hear.

In 2014, if everything works out and everyone hangs around, Millard is a senior, Childress is a sophomore and the 2013 guy is a redshirt freshman. In 2015, Millard is gone, Childress and the 2013 guy are older and the 2014 guy is a redshirt freshman.

On and on that cycle is supposed to go … and WVU actually inherited a good situation there for that reason alone.

I really don’t think you’re going to see more than three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster or more than one in a recruiting class, unless something happens with signed players and WVU has to sign two, or sign one and accept a transfer, just to get the numbers up and get the cycle rolling. Otherwise, WVU will avoid signing more than one in any year.

“What happens when you bring in two guys is one beats out the other and the other one transfers,” Spavital said. “Only one guy can get on the field, so the focus is one in a class and then keep them happy. You’ve just got to find the way. You’ve also got to look at the situation.

“Say Geno is a two-year starter. He’s got two years left. Obviously the problem now is the kid’s got to wait two more years. You can sell them on the ways to make it work, like coming in and redshirting for a year and then competing for the backup job, but it always depends on the kid.”