Once upon a time, this was a preseason puzzle that Dana Holgorsen presented as part subterfuge and part skill-sharpening. But when WVU’s coaches sat down to put together a depth chart, the assembly of players Holgorsen handed over to be published in the 2015 media guide, Crest was listed as the backup punt returner. (K.J. Dillon is the starter, because why the heck not?)

Much has changed between that August day and where we are now on the cusp of the next season. The secret back then about Crest is why he’s positioned as something of a secret weapon right now.

Holgorsen said Monday he believes Crest will secure a role similar to what Charles Sims had and what Wendell Smallwood has. Others think Trevone Boykin’s blueprint is one to study, and Holgorsen won’t disagree with that. The consensus, though, is Crest is not the future but the present.

He’s a football player, too good to position on the sideline if he’s not quite good enough to be the starting quarterback. At a time when quarterbacks, who are almost invariably the best athletes on their high school teams, are more and more often among the best athletes on their college teams, you’ll notice other schools experimenting with and ultimately employing something similar.

“That, to me, is where the quarterback position has gone,’’ Holgorsen said. “You’re going to see the same thing at Ohio State. They’ve got three of them. I guarantee you that two of them aren’t going to be sitting on the sidelines.

“If you’re recruiting better athletes who are quarterbacks, I don’t understand what the big deal is about getting them out there to play other positions. An athletic quarterback that’s involved in the run game and the draw game and the perimeter game, that’s no different than a guy that’s lined up in the backfield or the slot.’’

Boykin certainly saw it that way. He doesn’t really know Crest, but he knows Crest’s type because he’s cut from the same cloth.

“You just try to be relevant,’’ Boykin said. “If you’re a college football athlete you get a chance to watch other games and you see all the stuff that goes on around you and you just try to be one of those guys. And you try to do it in the right way.’’

For Boykin, doing it the right way meant not getting into some sort of a funk because he wasn’t playing quarterback. That’s an easy trap into which a quarterback who is used to being a quarterback can often fall.

“It depends on him a lot,’’ Boykin said. “If he really wants to commit to the QB position, he should. But if he’s going to be one of those guys like I was, I was just willing to help the team. That’s all it was about. If that meant playing quarterback then I was going to play quarterback. But if that’s not the best way you can help the team, don’t do it.

“It’s about being a team player. If he’s like me, I just wanted the ball. It didn’t matter how I got it.’’