https://twitter.com/WVUfootball/status/718225309871534081

This has been Mike Molina’s spring. At some point, presumably last month, before the start of the 15 practices, he was made aware of Josh Lambert’s suspension. The kid who came to campus to replace Tyler Bitancurt and “didn’t know how good Josh was until I got here” was bumped up to the No. 1 spot. He even got to don a GoPro.

But things change.

For all we know, because Molina said he’s not comfortable discussing the details of what he was told about Lambert and when he was told, which is fine, Molina was approaching things like Lambert was gone all spring and significantly longer. Not that it matters now, but I’ve heard Lambert’s suspension was for the entire season before it was appealed and then trimmed to three games.

Molina tried to take better care of himself, not wanting to lose the job to an injury and not wanting WVU to move onto Door No. 3 and, I guess, Billy Kinney, who’s actually the only punter on hand right now. So Molina stretched more. He developed some habits to help him recover quicker and better between practices. He cultivated a mindset in which he was The Guy, which is necessary when that’s never been what’s between your ears.

And so it was that last Thursday Molina did what he did 10 other times before and showed up to spring practice as The Guy, except that this time, The Guy Who Was The Guy was there. Molina handled the first-team kicks and Lambert, who’d only recently learned of his shorter ban, handled the second-team reps.

“That was the only thing that’s been different,” Molina said of the player he first started competing with three years ago. “I went out there and just kicked. I was just worried about trying to get better that day. Nothing else was really different.”

On Saturday, the Mountaineers scrimmaged. Lambert didn’t participate and spent the day watching, advising Molina and stretching his legs. Molina handled kicks, making extra points and field goals and pushing just one too far to the right. Mark Scott, WVU’s special teams coach, said Molina tries 10 or 12 field goals every practice and has made close to 80 percent of his attempts.

When the Mountaineers open the season at home against Missouri on Sept. 3, when they host to Youngstown State a week later and when they play BYU at FedEx Field two weeks after that, Molina will do the kicking.

“It’s awesome,” he said. “It’s been definitely a dream come true for me from where I was a walk-on and I didn’t even think the coaches knew my name when I first got here. Small kid. Just the journey being here, it’s already been good enough.”