They all wear shirts or caps (or both) that advertise the team they represent, the team that may one day employ one of these Mountaineers they're sent to town to study.

Rarely do they ever have a notebook tucked into their pocket or a pen fitted behind an ear. One day a scout from a team in the AFC West walked onto the field with a digital recorder and he was talking into it about something that had to have been related to how the team stretches. Apart from that, there's no way to know who they're watching or what they think.

The real work is done behind closed doors. The scouts know who they want. They have questions they need to ask and responses they have to hear.

And so it was that Chris Beatty found himself in his office not long ago talking to one of those scouts when the coach in charge of WVU's running backs, fullbacks and slot receivers was again invited to speak about Noel Devine.

Beatty's been through this as often as Devine's been through off tackle left - and it showed.

"His game," Beatty said, "is 100 percent better than it was two years ago."

Easy to say, which makes it easy to dismiss ... unless there's proof to take what seems cliche and make it feel real.

As Beatty shared details of the conversation, he went back to a play during WVU's preseason camp. Devine was asked to run a corner route, which he did with no trouble. Not only that, he caught the pass from quarterback Geno Smith.

"Two years ago, if I asked him to run a corner route, I don't know what I would have gotten," Beatty said. "He's come a long way in that respect."

A large part of that is just the way a player matures within the game.

Watch anything from Devine's online library of highlight packages and you can see he had simply too much for high school opponents to fathom, let alone tackle.

There was too much speed, too much coordination, too much balance, too much razzle-dazzle.

College would be far more complicated and his improvisation, as tantalizing as it was, could be a liability.

Far too often during his sophomore season, Devine lost chunks of yardage when he could have gained fractions. He'd go left when he needed to go down. He'd step back when he should have fallen forward.

"You no longer see those Barry Sanders-type runs where he runs side to side and all that stuff," Beatty said. "He gets north now and that gives himself an opportunity to play at the highest level."

An opportunity is not a guarantee, and Devine grew to understand that.

He considered the NFL during the offseason and Coach Bill Stewart said he was told some NFL teams were ready to take Devine in the second round.

But the 5-foot-8, 180-pound Devine would be a niche player there, someone with a small set of skills, the type of player who could only be plugged into certain situations.

No one - Devine, Beatty, Stewart - was content with that. Devine, who is devotedly religious and empowered by belief, refuse to accept that was his destination. For as far as he'd come as a person, let alone a player, he was certain he was able to do more. He knew he could prove more and realized he'd not yet done that.

That ankle injury that bothered him throughout last season? He feels like it was a message from above. Had it never arrived, he goes through his junior season and puts up larger statistics. That, in turn, convinces him he's done enough to merit a jump to the NFL.

That it did arrive and slowed him down throughout the season and minimized his numbers - while increasing doubts about his potential gave him not just things to improve, but time in which to do those things.

There was a time when Beatty sat down with Devine to review the running back's sophomore season. Coach explained to player he was a good running back, but not elite. There was no reason Devine couldn't become elite, as long as he was committed to running the right way.

"He needed to get vertical on his runs and be able to square his pads up and do those things better," Beatty said. "We sat down and watched film and corrected that. Every day we talked about it and it became an emphasis last spring and then into the fall.

"This past spring we sat down and watched a bunch of guys.

"We watched Shonn Greene cutups, Adrian Peterson cutups and just tried to watch a bunch of different guys and how they ran the ball and say, 'How can we emulate some of the good traits they have?'

"There has been a noticeable change in his demeanor with how he gets downhill and how he runs the football"

After Devine's junior season, when he rushed for 1,465 yards and 13 touchdowns, and the flirtation with the NFL, Beatty changed the conversation with Devine. Perhaps Devine was elite, but he needed to become complete. No one could question what happened when the ball was in Devine's hands. Beatty and Devine couldn't allow anyone to question Devine when he was without the ball.

He needed to block better on pass plays, master route running and receiving and be a dynamic presence on special teams. It would nix the niche label and sell him as an every-down player.

"I think eventually he can be that," Beatty said. "Obviously, with the NFL there's a growth pattern to all of that and you learn and get better as you go. You learn to play the game and get a little stronger and all those things and he could eventually be that guy.

"Chris Johnson isn't a big guy - he's a 5-11, 190-pound guy - but he learned how to shield himself to not take direct hits.

"Schemes help you do that. He's got a chance to be that back in that kind of scheme when you get the ball 18, 22 times a game. I think for him to be able to handle it, it's got to be the right scheme where he's not taking downhill runs and has to lower his pad level to constantly take on linebackers."