Marvin Gross is going to play today, and he’s going to be expected to rattle Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya and run with receivers and tight ends and tackle running backs. He’s a spur safety, and as you know, as the spur goes, so goes West Virginia’s 3-3-5. We suspect Kyzir White will play and maybe even start, but it was just five days ago when coach Dana Holgorsen said White was still healing and would play with the broken hand in a protective encasing.

Gross seems capable, though, because his first start in the regular-season finale against Baylor turned into the first time a WVU player ever had two sacks, one interception and one forced fumble.

But the really big days for Gross? They came back in the simmer of 2013 and put him on a curvy path toward this game.

“What a lot of people fail to realize is when they made me sit down my first year because I wasn’t good enough to play, Marvin played,” Benton remembered. “He’s the reason why I sat down. The last two days of camp, Marvin came out and had 10 sacks. I had to redshirt. He played.”

Ten sacks!

“I’m completely serious,” Benton said.