MORGANTOWN — As far as he knew, Scott Kozlowski was as good as done in West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez’s mind.

His sin?

A bad punt in 2006.

In a matchup of Top 10 teams WVU and Louisville.

He was supposed to angle the kick, which he didn’t do, and Louisville got a good return in a game the Cardinals won 44-34.

That punt cost Kozlowski his job. And, apparently, his career.

Kozlowski was a forgotten man.

“My biggest thing was it kind of killed my confidence,” Kozlowski said. “I knew I messed up that punt during the game. It really messed with me and bothered me. It was hard to come back from it, especially when you aren’t punting and that was your last punt you ended off of. It definitely affected me.”

Maybe Rodriguez was wrong for yanking Kozlowski.

If this year is an indication, he definitely was.

The senior is averaging 48.2 yards per punt and has twice been named the Big East special teams player of the week.

Not bad for a guy who wasn’t sure Morgantown was the place to be after his humiliating 2006.

“There was a point where I thought I would leave,” he said. “But I knew I could play Division I football and I didn’t want to sit out a year and transfer, go to a new school and go through all that. So I decided to stick it through.”

It’s been a strange career for the 5-foot-11, 191-pound redshirt senior from West Palm Beach, Fla.

He admits to having a somewhat strained relationship with former kicker/punter Pat McAfee, the man who would eventually replace Kozlowski in the lineup.

“The thing that was unfortunate with me and Pat, when we were punting for the job and it got competitive, it kind of seemed like we had a love-hate relationship type of thing,” Kozlowski said. “That was a bummer for me. But he’s doing what he’s doing now.

“You can’t fault him for trying to be competitive and having an awesome leg and excelling and going to the NFL. It was a rough road the last two-and-a-half years. But I don’t have any grudges against him. I’m happy for him. I just try to make the positive things out of that.”

Bill Stewart held an open audition for the job in spring practice and fall camp and Kozlowski emerged with the job over Gregg Pugnetti.

“It was just about me getting the opportunity to shine again and to play. I didn’t think it would take two-and-a-half years,” Kozlowski said. “That’s just how everything fell into place. I just had to make a positive out of a negative, I guess.”

He’s done just that. And Stewart, for one, is happy for Kozlowski.

“He is just mentally tougher,” Stewart said. “He could have packed it in, but he stayed the course. He didn’t want to leave West Virginia without having proven to himself first that he could play at this level. He’s a great young man, and he’s going to be a success. I just hope, for his sake, for the rest of the games, he continues to punt well, because he’s very deserving. He has done all of the work himself.”

He finds himself in a same type of boat with fellow West Palm Beach product Jarrett Brown, the Mountaineers’ first-year quarterback.

“It’s so hard waiting. I would talk to Jarrett just because (they were going through the same thing). But he was in a different position. I mean, Pat White? You can’t really try to get over Pat White unless he’s injured. Patience worked out for Jarrett. And hopefully it will work out for me, too, and we can both go out on top and see what happens after college.”

Kozlowski knows the job is his, but he doesn’t think for a minute he can’t be yanked.

“That’s one thing that makes me positive, that if something happens hopefully they won’t yank me like happened before,” Kozlowski said. “At the same time, I don’t want that to happen at all. I don’t want there to even be a question about whether they should let me punt or should they play someone else.”

Kozlowski has taken the bull by the horns and is a weapon for the Mountaineers.

He averaged 48 yards on four punts against Colorado last week, with a long of 56.

“If you can get a good punt off, you can help the defense out,” said Kozlowski, who did just that when one of his punts against Liberty, in the season opener, was downed inside the one. “Then maybe you can get a safety out of it or at least keep them deep in their own territory.”

“He really did a great job this week,” Stewart said of the Colorado game. “He hit a 56-yarder, and he had one inside the 20 at the seven. That ball may have rolled into the end zone. He has really done a great job. Scotty has matured, and he has persevered. He is having a banner season, and I hope for his sake and for the Mountaineers that it continues.”

But, for the sake of argument in his own mind, what if he had done the job against Louisville?

“It makes me wonder sometimes,” he said. “This would be my fourth year punting. It would probably be good for me because I’d have all that experience. But things happen. But you can’t take back what happened and how the coaches, coach Rod, felt. You have to do what they wanted me to do.”