West Virginia head coach Neal Brown wants to get his running back room right.
The Mountaineers played three different backs against Houston splitting the snaps with CJ Donaldson leading the way with 49 while both Jaheim White and Jaylen Anderson played 18 each.
It was a decision made throughout the practice week as all three of the members of the backfield performed well leading up to the game and position coach Chad Scott wanted to see who got hot.
It also simplified the numbers because the fourth member of that position group in junior Justin Johnson didn’t travel due to being out of practice all last week with an illness.
“I wanted to keep them fresh and get them all going early on and see what they would do,” Scott said.
The Mountaineers had some success in the first half, but things proved difficult in the second as the Cougars made it intentional to prevent the offense from running the ball. The final numbers were underwhelming with 25 carries for 93 yards but even with that being said there were plays there.
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In the passing game, Anderson allowed a pass to get into his body which was deflected for an interception in the end zone while both Donaldson and White missed opportunities on the ground.
Some of that comes with making better holes for the backs to run through, but the Mountaineers also have to run smart and create plays by making the right reads.
“We didn’t make some plays that we should have made in the second half,” Scott said.
Donaldson has been the bell-cow in the backfield this season with a total of 103 of the 181 running back rush attempts this season and has totaled 414 yards and five touchdowns. A total of 281 of those yards have came after contact this season as Donaldson has forced a positional high 14 missed tackles.
But the Mountaineers have to find more reliable options behind him.
White has shown flashes at times with his speed, but he has to take care of his body to show the same burst that caught the attention of the coaching staff in camp while Anderson has averaged just 3.1 per carry with a long run of just 15-yards.
“We’ve got to get those other guys to give us something,” Brown said.
And as part of that Brown admitted that could mean shortening the rotation in the backfield in order to allow Donaldson and whoever totes the rock behind him to get into a rhythm.
West Virginia will have another opportunity to get the ground game rolling against Oklahoma State, but as the offense displayed against Houston if teams are going to sell out, they are more than willing to throw it.
But the Mountaineers want to effectively run the football and finding options to give Donaldson some help is going to be critical moving forward.
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