Against the best defensive unit WVU will face this season at Penn State, the Mountaineers' rushing attack showed why it's dangerous and to offensive coordinator Chad Scott, it's the lifeline for the Mountaineers' offense.

On Saturday night, the Mountaineers racked up 146 yards on the ground, led by 81 yards and a touchdown for sophomore tailback C.J. Donaldson and another 71 yards and a score from signal-caller Garrett Greene, which was impressive against a stingy run defense.

In 2022, the Nittany Lions allowed only 105 rushing yards per game, ranking Top-10 in the nation. After a solid performance that saw West Virginia create some explosion on the ground with Donaldson and Greene leading the charge, pounding the football will be a priority for the offense moving forward.

"The great thing is we can run it either way. More so a balance of keeping defenses guessing and not giving tendencies up. We can run it to the left, right or up the middle. We did a good job of running the ball but we have to keep it balanced," Scott said.

When you run behind a stellar offensive line, it definitely is a positive for your offensive attack and now that Donaldson has blossomed into a physical runner and the offensive line has proven that it can excel in run blocking, why not run the football as much as you can.

Donaldson and his aggressive running style is really what makes the group come to a head though and when he is successful and physical, no one can stop him, and he showed that to his coaches against Penn State, despite the team's overall offensive struggles.

"I liked what I saw from C.J. Donaldson, and overall from a physicality standpoint, that was probably his best football game overall. He was physical running the football and never got tackled by the first defender and with yards after contact he was very physical," Scott said. "But I was really excited by the way he played, he was the best running back on the field."

However, there is more than just one phase to the run game for Scott and this includes ball security. Along with running physically, it's even more important to hold onto the ball and maintain possessions.

"We do ball security drills absolutely every single day. I emphasize that absolutely every single day. One of the things I've done with the offense is that I show them a ball security clip and we watch that later in the week on how the defense is going to try to tackle them with the football," Scott said. "That’s going to give us a chance to be successful and win football games, taking care of the football. We’re just going to be who we are. We're just going to go out there and play our style of offense."

Now after one week of a successful rushing attack in the books, it's up to Scott and the offense to find how it can compliment the passing game and rely on it more throughout the season.

"We got to establish the run early and find a way to get him [Greene] an easy completion. So we're going to rely on the run game heavily and find a way to get him easy completions to get him going. If they can do that, that's huge," Scott said.

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