Fairmont’s Dante Stills, still a four-star prospect reaching for the sky, is nearing the point where he minimizes his interview access and realizes he can do all he needs to do via social media, but he did spend a few moments last week to dish on the process and his experience at a regional audition for The Opening, which is a big deal on the recruiting circuit. Stills aced the exam and earned an invitation to the main event in Oregon.

Still, Stills outperformed many of his defensive line mates and impressed the scouts enough that he was one of the select few to get an invite to The Opening Finals this summer.

“It was an honor. Not a lot of athletes get to experience such a big invitation,” he said. “I’m really thankful for the opportunity and I’m going to go down there and handle my business.”

What makes this invitation even more unique is that Stills is just the third player from West Virginia to ever receive an invite, joining former George Washington athlete Ryan Switzer (North Carolina) and South Charleston athlete Derrek Pitts (West Virginia).

“A lot of people doubt West Virginia because it’s a small state and not a lot of [college football recruits] come out of here,” said Stills. “I’m trying to represent my family, my city, my state. I’m going to make the best example I can. I want people to know that there are athletes in West Virginia that can compete with anyone in the country.”

While we’re here …

… big news about news. Scout.com filed for bankruptcy last year and in February was bought by CBS, which is the parent company of 247Sports. This morning, one started becoming the other as, locally, WVU’s Scout.com affiliate began resembling the 247Sports affiliate.

This is not insignificant. Changes are afoot and more changes are coming. WVU’s Scout.com site was very good. Traveled. Covered games. Photos. Videos. Wrote with acumen and without bias. There were people on the ground in and around town. It wasn’t a “recruiting” website. It was a WVU website, and that website, I should remind you, paired with a print publication. A solid and successful media model.

WVU’s 247Sports site is just fine, too, but it is different, which is not to say bad. It’s just different, as are any two things. Doesn’t possess the same resources — personnel, print edition, multimedia elements, etc. — but also doesn’t use the same delivery model. It breaks news and covers games and stories with immediacy and urgency, but it also uses stringers and remote access to events, which is increasingly common in the media. And please, let me reiterate it’s not bad or worse, and if you fear or suspect it is, understand it can all change. You don’t buy something with no plan to use it, right? In fact, as of this morning, the Scout.com/247Sports site, which shows no signs of the is called MountaineersDaily.com, meaning one company is, at least for the time being, committing itself to two WVU sites.

Lots of balls up in the air right now. I’m certain we’ll learn more in the future, and we’re too early in the transition to know — or say! — very much, but we do know it matters because it alters your avenues to WVU news. It does not eliminate them, though. Scout.com didn’t own the name BlueGoldNews.com, much like it it didn’t own the print Blue & Gold News, and that means those entities can continue. Scout.com was the platform for the BlueGoldNews.com product. The product moved on, and it can move to another platform.