Kyle Bosch can play college football at the highest level, an opinion supported by the fact major programs throughout the five major conferences wanted to sign him in the 2013 recruiting class. He opted for the University of Michigan, not terribly far from his St. Charles, Ill., home, and he was good enough to play five games and start three times as a true freshman.

Consider that for what it’s worth alongside this from his new head coach, Dana Holgorsen: The thing with offensive linemen is that if you’re counting on o-linemen, whether they’re JUCO or not, to come in and play right away, you’re team is not in a good spot. 

That axiom is the same throughout the country. Bosch and others as no less prodigious are exceptions. There are a handful every year, and the Mountaineers have one of them now. He wasn’t much to write about as a sophomore last year, and in fact more was written about him after he played one game and then took a leave of absence from the program.

Bosch returned to campus in January to meet the new coach, but he said he was surprised to learn Jim Harbaugh was not as eager about a reunion.

“I was at school all day, getting ready,” Bosch told Sporting News on Tuesday morning. “Then I met with Coach Harbaugh and I didn’t expect the transfer. That was not my original intent when I went up there yesterday. … This was very untimely. If it was my intention to transfer, I would have done that a long time ago.”

Bosch said his meeting with Harbaugh produced two options: stay with the program with stipulations (he did not say what they were) or transfer.

“They were shocked and a lot of people were disappointed that I was leaving,” Bosch said of informing his teammates of the news. “I love all of them very, very much. I saw a lot of my teammates for the first time since I left in September. There were a lot of hugs and tears and it was a shock to everyone.”

He was widely wooed and soon ended up at WVU, where the Mountaineers immediately applied for his 2015 eligibility — less of a case-specific motivation than a general process for WVU and transfers, though the coaches thought they’d earn the NCAA’s approval on this one. That hunch was validated last week when the NCAA green-lighted the 6-foot-5, 315-pound Bosch.

The thumb up gave Ron Crook a former consensus four-star recruit who had all 15 spring practices with the 1s and 2s and sometimes 3s and now has the entirety of the summer workouts to carve out his spot.

Big news, right? Of course, though maybe not for the reason you think.

Look, there’s no use denying the potential. Bosch hits all the targets when you take a prospect and project him forward … leave of absence notwithstanding, because let’s agree Michigan was sort of a mess last season. At the minimum, let’s withhold judgment on that one. But he’s tall and long and he hails from the Midwest, and you’d assume scores of major-college programs who scouted him and who camped with him were right to trust his bona fides. Those same traits guarantee nothing because he hasn’t done it on the field, but he has the sort of traits that get players on the field.

This is not the sort of acquisition that happens frequently across the country, never mind at WVU, so the reasoned response is: WVU has a new starter/cog. It’s just not proper. Not yet at least.

The biggest and best news for Crook is that he has a group of players now (12 on scholarship with four more arriving this summer) with a combination of quantity and quality that prevents a person of Bosch’s profile from jumping in and taking what his reputation wants. In years past? Probably not the same story. Right now, though, Bosch is the backup left guard behind Adam Pankey.

“I really don’t think this changes anything about where we are right now,” said Crook, two seasons in as the line coach. “Our approach all along was if he makes it, then it’s a bonus. The way we approach it right now is he made it, and now we have that bonus, which is great. If things progress for him and if he deserves to be on the field — whether as one of the best five we have or No. 6 or No. 7 or whatever — he’ll be out there.

“The biggest thing this does for us is give us another body who has some pretty high-profile experience at this level.”

But let’s be realistic here. Nothing is cemented. So much can and will happen in camp and then practice before the first game. Crook has so far proved he’s willing make moves to make improvements before, during and after seasons. And this is where Bosch is such an asset. WVU came out of the spring with a pretty good feel for its five from left to right: Yodny Cajuste, Pankey, Tyler Orlosky, Tony Matteo/Grant Lingafelter and Marquis Lucas. There can be no complacency now.

Bosch is a guard and not a tackle and he’s done his best work on the left side, but Crook won’t plant him there. What if Pankey soars at left guard and Bosch is on his hip. What if he’s better than Matteo and Lingafelter?

What if Matteo beats out Lingafelter, or vice versa, and Crook likes that starter/backup combination just fine, but isn’t sold on Cajuste or his backup, Russell Haughton-James? Cajuste is a redshirt freshman, and there’s a bias against too many of those type of players, especially in the presence of available players with more maturity. Say Cajuste can’t extend his solid spring, and remember Haughton-James was arrested for burglary last month. Pankey was the left tackle last year and Bosch is, for the moment, a left guard.

But what if he’s not a left guard. What if he’s better outside than any other candidate?

You see where this is going. Crook knows where this can go. We don’t know how good Bosch is, though Crook raved about his desire and his toughness, but we do know this: He’s good enough to make the line better by simply joining the active roster and introducing a list of possibilities that keep the linemen on their competitive toes.

Your predictions are welcome.