The assistant coaches took their turns to talk to the media Monday and provide updates, and it was defensive coordinator Tony Gibson who called the defensive line a bright spot so far and defensive line coach Bruce Tall who shrugged off the suggestion his group has been having a tough time. And to be clear, because this is an important part of it, WVU knew in the spring about the significant injuries to Jaleel Fields and Xavier Pegues.

But given that the Mountaineers thought they had eight or nine bodies and now have, let’s say, six or seven with another week of camp and then two-plus weeks of practice after that, they’re not exactly working with a net. They need their healthy players — and especially their young and developing players — to stay healthy.

And that’s extremely true at nose guard.

There’s Darrien Howard and then, as Tall described it during the media session yesterday, what we can best describe as a plan to spell him from time to time.

Well, hopefully we can utilize him quite a bit. We have guys that we can rotate in for him whether they come from the nose (guard) pile, or whether they come from the end pile because we want to keep him fresh. Like you said he is a real athletic type nose because of his background of being a linebacker. He runs better than most guys who would be playing that position and because he goes so hard and the plays that we are going to see we do have to keep him fresh.

So here’s a theory: Darrien Howard is the most indispensable player on WVU’s defense. (Aside: Remember when he signed and I wrote that he was damn near 300 pounds and destined to be a defensive lineman and people flipped out on me for getting it all wrong because, no Mike, he’s a fantastic linebacker?)

If he struggles or gets hurt there, the Mountaineers really have to scramble — at an absolutely critical position in the 3-3-5. A succession plan would involve several machinations like playing starting defensive end Christian Brown and backup defensive end Jon Lewis inside and elevating true freshman Reese Donahue and redshirt freshman Adam Shuler outside and redshirt freshman Alec Shriner and, yikes, true freshmen Jeffrey Pooler and Chase Behrendt inside.

Now, I suspect those two wouldn’t be blended in unless things were very dire, but you get the idea. One thing affects several things.

For now, it’s nothing to worry about, and take solace in the fact Howard is healthy, productive and wired properly for his senior season.

“I’ve been trying to condition myself to prepare to take more snaps if need be,” Howard said. “I think [the young guys] are pretty good. They’ve got a lot to work on as well, just like I do, but I feel like in the future they’re going to be pretty good.”

West Virginia’s 3-3-5 defensive scheme relies heavily on the odd front to absorb blockers, and that begins with Howard, who will have to free up linebackers behind him to make tackles.

Howard understands that better than most to play the position. He entered the fold at WVU as a highly recruited linebacker from Chaminade-Julienne High School in Dayton, Ohio. Rivals.com listed Howard as a four-star recruit at inside linebacker.

“The guy in the middle is very important, he’s the anchor of our defense,” Howard said. “Without that guy in the middle holding up, the defense doesn’t work, run game or pass.

“You just have to have a mindset that regardless of how many blocks you take on, you’re going to outman all of them and free up the linebackers if need be or make the play.”