Frequently people wonder why WVU restricts access to practice like it does. It’s hard for me to answer, but the best and most honest way to put it is that programs are rightly paranoid because there are smart and clueless people at practices. The smart folks see something and pick up on it and write about it. That’s what they’re there to do, no? The clueless people have no idea what they’re seeing — they either don’t know what they’re watching or don’t realize it’s happening — but they report it because they’re hoarding and distributing video content. For better or worse, that’s what they’re there to do, too.

One side bothers WVU, and other programs, more than the other. I’d ask you to guess, but you know. You should also know that WVU was driven crazy last season by the crowds of people holding cameras around the quarterback drills because that crowd obscured the view of the practice film the coaches would look at later. This year, WVU put a periscope prohibition in practice because it knew people would do it and could show something the Mountaineers didn’t want shown. If it wasn’t a play or a formation, than perhaps it was a fight or confrontation.

If I’m being honest, this is why I think WVU begins practice with special teams work. We get to see 30 minutes here and there, and if it’s not special teams we watch, it’s some menial drills. (On occasion, we do get to see scrimmages. I don’t want to come across as ungrateful, but you get the point.) This is also why I think William Crest was returning punts for the world to see last summer. WVU knows you can’t get anything worth sharing from watching special teams — which is to say, nothing that gives opponents some sort of advantage — and WVU knew it could proliferate Crest’s athleticism by having him do something quarterbacks don’t often do.

To some inside and outside the media, though, this seems silly and petty and manipulative. I can’t convince those people it matters and that opponents have people — plural — who scour the internet to get any intel, any edge, any assistance they can. I mention this because within that fine SBNation piece on Georgia Southern’s preparations for WVU is a tidbit I promise you bothers the Mountaineers.

There’s a photo of WVU’s quarterback — “the photo” — Georgia Southern’s defensive staff found. They’re not sure of the date. They’re not sure if it’s from a scrimmage. But they think “the photo” shows a pre-snap Howard’s eyes wide and focused away from the center.

That’s it.

“We think he’s reading the defensive end. If he’s doing that, we think they could use the zone read with a QB run option,” Curtis says on Tuesday. “There’s a concern he’s going to do it.”

This, in short, is what has WVU and so many others worried.