MORGANTOWN — Chad Scott’s promotion to WVU’s offensive coordinator this offseason did not get a big reaction from outside the program when it was announced back in January.
That’s okay, because the reaction from the guys inside the program was big enough. As seen in a video posted to the team’s social media, when the former running backs coach was introduced to the team as their next offensive coordinator, the Mountaineer plays embraced him with open arms and resounding applause.
“It was priceless,” Scott said of the team’s reaction to his promotion. “I had no idea until about 30 minutes before then. …I t was a little bit of disbelief and excitement at the same time but it was awesome to see their reception to that. It’s been awesome.”
In the weeks since then, Scott has tackled his expanded list of responsibilities and during the team’s first spring practice Tuesday morning, he had his first taste of what overseeing an entire offense is like.
“The biggest adjustment is I’m so used to having tunnel vision with the running backs and linebackers,” Scott said following practice. “It’s just being able to see the whole picture, see everything that’s going on, that’s going to be the biggest adjustment. I love the leadership opportunity, I feel like one of my best abilities is being able to connect with the guys and bring out the best in them.”
Scott’s first task as offensive coordinator will be to re-tool a WVU offense that has been built with Air Raid philosophies over the last four years. With four capable running backs and a returning offensive line, the Mountaineers are set up to be a run-first team in 2023.
“Schematically, we return our offensive line and we have a really good running back room,” head coach Neal Brown said Monday. “I think, from an offensive perspective, you’ve got to use the pieces that you have, and we think we have some really good pieces. Sometimes people focus on what you don’t have. Very few running back rooms in the country have four guys that have been very productive.”
Most football teams build their offense around their best skill players. However, most teams’ best skill players are not exclusively running backs. With the exception of NC State transfer Devin Carter, West Virginia has no experience at either wide receiver or tight end.
“We’ve got to play to our strength,” Scott said. “Our strength right now is those guys up front and those guys behind them. …. Obviously, we won’t be able to get through a game just handing the ball off every snap, so those (receivers) have to contribute and have to be able to stretch the field vertically for us.”
Building an offense around running backs means those backs will be asked to do a lot more than just take hand-offs and carry the ball.
“They’ve got to be able to block for each other,” Brown said. “The last time we tried to do this back in ‘19 when we had a little bit of depth, that was what prevented us from doing that. The second thing is they’ve got to show some versatility to be able to move around, play some wide-out and catch the ball.”
“The biggest thing those guys have got to do right now is learn the concepts in the pass game,” Scott added. “We weren’t as involved in the pass game last year as we were in previous years. I think we will eventually get to that point where you could see three running backs on the field at the same time to take advantage of CJ Donaldson’s ability to play receiver.”
Another wrinkle in WVU’s offense will be that both potential starting quarterbacks, Garrett Greene and Nicco Marchiol, have the ability to run the ball themselves.
“I think the biggest difference you’ll see initially is that we have two mobile quarterbacks,” Scott said. “We haven’t had that since we’ve been here. We can do some different things in the run game and with zone-reads to take advantage of their mobility.”
While neither Brown nor Scott will go into much detail about what WVU’s offense will specifically look like, understandably so, the Mountaineers’ offense will undoubtedly be different by the time fall comes around.
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