Meet Isaiah Bruce, a redshirt freshman from Jacksonville, Fla., who used a well-rounded prep experience to set a little history at Providence  School.

Never before had a Stallion turned a football career into a scholarship at a BCS school. Bruce was the first, though, after time spent as a hurdler and a basketball player, as well as an inside linebacker and an outside linebacker.

Now the 6 foot, 1 inch, 225-pound Bruce is, er, running behind Doug Rigg and Jared Barber in the middle and looks to have precisely what WVU wants from its second-level players in this attacking 3-4 scheme. He’s able in space and he’s been called an “explosive blitzer” and, truth be told, he might have a greater potential that some around him.

“As a defense, you have to have guys on the field who can make plays in space,” Patterson said. “Teams are doing these negative-yardage routes that all of a sudden turn into a 9-yard gain and it’s nothing but a long handoff. You have to have guys who can move and make plays.

“Honestly, I like recruiting the multi-sport athletes. I think sometimes it’s not always about what you see because their ceiling for improvement maybe is higher.”