If we’re going to tell the story about Tony Gibson’s yet again amended contract, the details of which came to light Monday, the first day West Virginia could fulfill a FOIA request on the matter, then we should start with the prior version.

What was a three-year, $2.1 million contract wasn’t really that, even though it was that. Allow me to explain:

The last sentence of (2) is what I’m referring to. If Dana Holgorsen quit, retired or was fired or incapacitated in a skydiving accident, that third year was not guaranteed. This is not uncommon, though it’s new at WVU because the school hadn’t crafted a contract like this before last year.

What we can agree to say about Holgorsen’s job status was that it was in question earlier this month. And then it seemingly wasn’t when Athletic Director Shane Lyons popped up and propped up his football coach. Four days later — and we can assume this did not happen in a snap — Gibson had an amended contract. The amendment? The “if and only if the University’s current Head Coach is Head Coach during that time” has been deleted. Gibson’s 2017 salary is now guaranteed.

Kind of.

Before I explain and before we resume with the story of Gibson’s new version of his most recent contract, let’s pause for a second: Kudos to his agent.

Gibson returned to WVU in 2013 and was set to make $250,000 a year for two years. He jumped to defensive coordinator after the first season and got a $100,000 raise for 2014. Oliver Luck then engineered the three-year extension.

And this is all merit based, because while Gibson’s done wonders and is immensely popular among his players and revered by his coaching peers, he was only tangentially connected to head coaching jobs at Bowling Green and Georgia Southern. He was merely a name at both places and never spoke to either school. It is known Gibson is content — for now — at WVU. This keeps him happy.

Would he take a head coaching job? Certainly, if it fit, but a school is going to have to make it fit. The new coach at Bowling Green is making $410,000 a year. The old coach was making $500,000 a year at Georgia Southern. When Gibson chooses to jump, he’s getting paid.

Anyhow, here’s the most significant part of the revised version:

Jump to the last sentence of (2). There’s the lede. It doesn’t mean WVU is keeping Holgorsen through 2017 — in fact, it elicits the opposite reaction from me; it suggests WVU would keep Gibson if Holgorsen leaves. (Insert all your theories here. I know you want to.) It also doesn’t really guarantee Gibson a job with the Mountaineers.

Look at the second paragraph in (3). Suppose WVU fires Holgorsen — or he takes another job, retired or gets critically injured doing a Red Bull keg stand — and a new coach comes to town. It would seem WVU is making a play to keep Gibson on the staff, but there’s a contingency to cover the contrary as well. A new coach could decline and omit Gibson from his staff. Gibson’s salary is still guaranteed, but only if he seeks a job and turns in written reports about how the search is going. They’re just like us!

If Gibson finds a new job and the salary is greater, WVU’s financial obligation is over. If the salary is lower, WVU pays Gibson the difference. I assume the job has to be in football, though it’s conceivable the Lester Burnham route is accessible, too.

To be frank, I don’t know why WVU did this, apart from a show of recruiting solidarity and/or rewarding Gibson for a job well done, which are perfectly acceptable explanations at WVU and in college football.

Special teams coach/defensive assistant Mark Scott, defensive line coach Damon Cogdell and safeties coach Joe DeForest are working on contracts that expire next month. None of their deals have been addressed as of this writing. The rest of the assistants have contracts that go through next season, and there’s no reason for WVU to address those.

But along those lines, I’m not sure what reason there was to do this for Gibson. But I don’t know why WVU wouldn’t do it, either. That doesn’t make sense, I know, but who needs sense?

Gibson climbed and labored to get the big contract, and he proved worthy this year, so now he has that third year and no one’s taking it from him. I like that a lot because I’m all for people getting theirs. But if WVU does have a new coach next season, it just wrote a check for possibly hundreds of thousands of dollars that it literally did not need to write.

It’s hard for me to imagine a scenario in which Scott, Cogdell and DeForest come back on two-year deals — or for a new coach or more new coaches to sign two-year deals — when everyone else is on a one-year deal. (Then again, good luck hiring new assistants in January to one-year deals in this environment.)

WVU could have kept Gibson in that one-year group by not executing this amendment that guarantees him his 2017 salary. All nine assistants would then be on one-year deals, and WVU would only have to pay Holgorsen his $2.9 million 2017 salary if it makes a coaching change after this season. And if Holgorsen and his staff win in 2016, he’s getting an extension, and all the assistants would get new deals, too. (This is where I reiterate conversations about a revised contract are ongoing.)

That’s all very tidy.

But the reality is WVU’s in a financial position now where it can sign off on $700,000 in a way that shouldn’t make us blink or spend 1,000 words discussing it. Gibson’s 2017 salary isn’t a road block on any avenue Lyons may need to one day travel.