West Virginia looking for ways to be more effective running the ball
West Virginia wants to run the football. That isn’t any type of secret.
And when you consider that the Mountaineers led power programs last season in rushing yards per game while returning many of the same personnel there’s not a lot of reason to change that philosophy.
But that doesn’t mean that the coaching staff can’t find ways to dress things up differently.
Offensive coordinator Chad Scott has placed an emphasis on attempting to manipulate free hitters, which are essentially unblocked safeties that step down to where the ball is supposed to go in the run game. And the best way to accomplish that is done pre-snap.
“With all the shifts and motions. Keeping guys honest and guessing,” he said.
It’s something that Scott did last season as well as the Mountaineers' offense utilized a lot of pre-snap movement at times, but he would be the first to say that he could have done a better job.
In fact, multiple times he brought things to head coach Neal Brown later in the week instead of earlier which hurt when it came to allowing the offense to work more on it in the preparation leading up to the game.
“Have an opportunity now to get on top of that stuff early with the motions and shifts and getting guys in position where they can handle that,” Scott said.
West Virginia wants to be a team that relies on their offensive line and can consistently run the football to control the clock and impose their will on their opponents. And while toughness is a key part of that, being smart with how to manipulate and confuse those extra defenders is another.
One of the biggest changes with the approach is that it cuts into the number of plays that the Mountaineers can run and it’s more difficult to hit that benchmark of 75-80 per game.
But it’s a good trade-off when done well.
“Because of the motions and shifts and time you take away from the clock,” he said.
It isn’t done overnight either and took time and buy-in from all of the players on the roster in order to make it as effective as possible.
That started with the coaches and then trickled down to those on the roster with Garrett Greene fully embracing it and helping push things along.
“And when he loves it, it really goes,” Scott said.
----------
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
