MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The other Mountaineers starter from Alabama has been dialing up a familiar area code almost daily of late.

"The guys like to play against all your friends," cornerback Ellis Lankster said about himself, quarterback brothers Coley and Patrick White plus reserve safety Trippe Hale. All are from Mobile Bay, as are many of the Auburn Tigers (4-3) that they face at Mountaineer Field on Thursday. "And I can call them and talk noise to them. I've talked to all of them, too. Like, Sen'Derrick [Marks, Auburn's loquacious defensive tackle] said they're going to run over our offensive line. I said, 'You think you are.' "

"Oh, yeah," Marks responded over the telephone. "He's been talking so much junk since the time they put us on the schedule till today. That dude's insane."

It's friendly fire, indeed.

For Lankster, this ESPN-televised show against a home-state team offers his biggest stage yet, which holds considerable allure to a slow-starting, junior-college transfer, one-time suspended Mountaineer and young man with a lifelong stutter everywhere but when rapping. That last part is one of many Lankster facets that earn the admiration of Marks, his former teammate at Vigor High in Mobile and friend still.

"You'll find out about Ellis like I've been saying about Pat White," said Marks, moments after speaking about the difficulty he had chasing the then-Daphne High quarterback around Gulf Shores fields back then. "Ellis played quarterback, he played running back, he played defensive back, he returned kicks. Lankster was an athlete. I knew how good he was."

Auburn didn't recruit Lankster to the nearest in-state Division I-A school, 220 miles northeast up Interstates 65 and 85 (actually, LSU was 20 miles closer). So he signed with Mississippi State after also considering fellow Southeastern Conference schools Arkansas, Mississippi and South Carolina. He instead wound up at Jones County (Miss.) Junior College and then, like so many Alabamians before him, West Virginia.

After a rocky beginning last year, running afoul of the law and the coaching staff after a last-day-of-camp arrest, he shed 20 pounds over the summer and gained both a starting cornerback spot along with punt-return duties.

"It's a full-time job now," he joked. The 5-foot-10, 190-pound senior ranks first on the Mountaineers (4-2) with four pass break-ups and second with 20 unassisted tackles. His 11.1-yard average on punt returns ranked 34th nationally entering the weekend and his three returns of 25-plus yards are among West Virginia's 22 biggest plays this season. Only Noel Devine and Patrick White have more.

Marks, by the way, knows talent. He is on the Outland, Bronko Nagurski and Maxwell award watch lists, not to mention that NFL draft projections place him among the first 10 picks. He claims to still tease Auburn defensive end Gabe McKenzie about the Davidson-Vigor game where Marks warned the then-230-pound receiver McKenzie that Lankster would jam him and prevent him from embarking on pass routes. "To this day, he's ticked off," Marks said. "But I knew that was the type of talent Ellis had. I'm just glad to see him showcasing his talents."

"It's going to be a great opportunity to play [old friends] again," said Lankster, who admittedly grew up a Florida Gators fan admiring cornerback Lito Sheppard. That the opponent is an SEC foe and home-state Auburn doesn't hurt, either. "Yeah, I want to put it to them, just to prove they missed a good player."