Tavon Austin is teaching Jordan Thompson many things, including the value in running the hell out of bounds.

“Even when we were doing 7-on-7 in the summer, I’d practice stepping out of bounds, even though it was just touch football, because I wanted to get in that habit,” he said.

Austin and Thompson get off the field and stay clear of danger, but they’ll still be abused. This is college football, after all, and the boys are men and many men think they ought to grow up and not shrink toward the sideline.

“Guys say a lot of crazy things – I can’t repeat them now, but they say what they say,” Austin said. “I laugh at them because I live to play the next play.”

This drives Austin’s opponents and fans berserk, but it’s probably a pretty smart thing. You do need to see Thompson in person to see how smallish he is, even beside Austin, who despite not being very big is nevertheless bigger.

Add to that Thompson’s Buieish knack for getting whacked quite a bit and you  understand, if not underline, the need to find safety. This will be a long season for Thompson, and if he is to be what WVU expects, he needs to manufacture longevity.

Thompson described two big hits from Monday’s practice, and what stood out was not the nature of the hits, alarming as they were, but that this was happening on the first day of practice.

Mrs. Thompson does not approve of this development.