MORGANTOWN — Noel Devine won’t be dining on clams anymore.

After a bad reaction to some clams at the Big East Media Day a couple weeks ago, the West Virginia senior running back isn’t in a hurry to find a seafood restuarant.

But the mighty-mite back — who is on the Watch List for both the Walter Camp and the Maxwell player of the year awards — is back in form.

“I’m back to 100 percent. I’m not a fan of clams. It was a first- and last-time experience for me. It wasn’t very good.”

Devine is hoping to exceed last season’s output of 1,465 yards and 13 touchdowns.

“There’s always room for improvement,” he said. “I always want to better myself each and every year. It’s the same thing every year —  just striving for consistency.”

Duplicating that season would vault Devine into second place in career rushing yards, past, among others, Steve Slaton, Amos Zereoue and Pat White.

He needs 1,783 to top Avon Cobourne’s record of 5,174.

He is willing to do whatever is necessary, not to break records, but help WVU win after he and Jock Sanders skipped the NFL draft to return for their senior seasons.

“If I’m asked to run it 35 times a game, I’ll do it. It’s not an option,” Devine said. “We have to go with what they give us. It would be off the wall to run it 35 times, but I’ll do it. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone but myself. That’s where it starts.”

Don’t expect many 35-carry games from Devine.

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Time and time again last year, West Virginia gave its fans and coaching staff a severe headache on kickoffs.

While the Mountaineers allowed just one kick return for a touchdown — in the season finale Rutgers’ Joe Lefeged returned a kick 91 yards, after WVU had scored on Sidney Glover’s 42-yard interception return — the Mountaineers struggled in the kick coverage area. Mightily.

Coach Bill Stewart is hoping an old friend — Dave McMichael — can help rectify that. McMichael is back with WVU after a decade at Connecticut. He coached at WVU for 17 years under Don Nehlen.

“We’re different. I’m always looking for new wrinkles,” Stewart said. “We’ve changed some things for both the kickoff and the kick return, and we’ve challenged them more on the punt return. There are new wrinkles on the kickoff. 

“We talk to people. We’ve always done that. I learned that from coach Crum at North Carolina. We would go after the season to learn a few things and then we’d bring that out in the bowl. We would talk to people in the business, learn what we need to improve and find things we needed to change. We went out and expanded with fellow coaches that we knew and trust and put our head together. Now, we have a good plan.”

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Don’t calculate Chris Neild’s net worth to the defense by tackles. Defensive linemen, nose tackles in particular, never accumulate big numbers.

“You have to be a tough guy to be a nose tackle,” Neild said. “I have to teach the young guys that the position doesn’t come with a lot of glamour. It’s purely a team position where you work toward one goal.”

That said, despite team’s double-teaming him most of the year, Neild had 35 tackles and his first career interception last year.

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You won’t find a bigger fan of sophomore Tavon Austin than senior Jock Sanders.

“He has been a play-maker since day one, but now he is just getting everything and gelling,” Sanders said. “He is getting his point across on the field. He is getting the point across that he is a play-maker that the other teams have to worry about.”

As a true freshman last year, Austin had 13 catches for 151 yards as Sanders’ primary backup and he also returned 17 kicks for 25.1 yards per and a touchdown.