That’s an order, not opinion. Right now, it’s not been easy on Mr. Petteway, who kind of cringes when he wakes up in the morning, because the physical price is much steeper than it was before. Deep down, though, he’s a fan of that variety of football and fine with paying the fine, especially since he’s better able now to give as much and as well as he gets.

“You have to be nasty and you have to be able to bring it every day, every play,” he said.

The position tends to bring that out of players, even as one as smooth and collected as Petteway is off the field. On Monday, the first day in pads and with contact, Petteway slammed into a lineman for the umpteenth time and thought the 6 foot, 5 inch, 335-pound Spain pushed and pulled a little too long after the whistle.

So Petteway went back at Spain, never mind the 5 inches and 110 pounds Spain had on him. Co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Keith Patterson certainly didn’t.

“He came up to me after the play and told me that linebackers don’t take that from anybody in his defense,” Petteway said.

Yet there is an issue here that we’re probably ignoring. WVU is asking a lot of people to do a lot of different things on defense this season. Petteway is making a move to a position where he could play, or start. That’s normal in the spring. We’re in August. Can someone pull it off in Joe DeForest’s 7? Linebacker Jared Barber says yes and you’ll love the explanation why.