WVU in need of a running game

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If Neal Brown’s offense has established any reality in his fourth season as head coach at West Virginia, it is that to win football games the Mountaineers have to be capable of producing at least 100 yards on the ground.
Facts back this up.
When rushing for 100 or more yards, WVU is 15-2. When held to fewer than 100 yards, the Mountaineers under Brown are 3-19.
And this holds true throughout his career. Overall, counting his time as head coach at Troy, his teams are 43-6 when outrushing the opponent and 11-31 when outrushed.
The larger the rushing total, the better, being 15-0 when rushing for more than 200 yards and 4-0 when rushing for 300 or more yards.
Granted there are any number of factors that explain this, including that the ability to run the ball normally means control of the line of scrimmage and that also can translate into better pass protection.
Also, it can be affected by a shaky defense that falls behind early and forces a team to throw much more than it runs in an effort to catch up. Generally speaking, Brown’s offenses – even this year with new coordinator Graham Harrell, an “Air Raid” proponent – is more a matter of the ground game setting up the pass game rather than vice versa.
The spotlight glares brightly upon this Thursday night as the Baylor game provides a huge challenge to the run offense.
To begin with, the Bears allow only 96.8 yards per game rushing, 18th in the country. That would present a major obstacle to the Mountaineers, especially coming off a 38-20 pounding handed out by Texas on Oct. 1 in which WVU garnered just 61 rushing yards.
Granted, they were down big early, which would affect that, but the Mountaineers rushed the ball 30 times, which means they averaged only 2.0 yards per attempt.
“Being down 28 had more to do with us going to pass plays than Texas stopping the run,” Harrell said.
To make matters even more challenging this week, WVU goes into the game without its leading rusher, true freshman CJ Donaldson, who is in concussion protocol and has been ruled out for the Baylor game.
He had three 100-yard rushing games in his first four college starts before his game was cut short with the concussion against Texas.
How will his absence affect WVU against a top 20 rush defensive team?
The Mountaineers had established a three-man rotation with Tony Mathis and Justin Johnson Jr., who was emerging as a force.
But the run game revolved around all that Donaldson could do.
Donaldson’s absence changes a number of things, perhaps the most obvious being third-down performance, as he is not only the short-yardage runner at 240 pounds but also, as a former wide receiver, he catches the ball well so he can be dangerous on flare passes.
And, surprisingly for a freshman, his pass protection is advanced, probably because he spent some time at tight end, too.
But there are other ways his absence affects the overall game.
“The side effects of having a positive run game is you can create more explosive plays,” Brown said. “That’s something we didn’t do as good a job with at Texas. We need to get the run game going.
“We got a chance to be really good on offense and the expectation is we need to be good each and every week but we were just OK against Texas because we didn’t run the ball very well.”
The load now falls more heavily on Mathis and Johnson.
“We’ve been playing three running backs. This week it will be two,” Brown said. “They know they will get more carries.”
And another injury could take a toll on the running game, that being a knee injury suffered by Mike O’Laughlin, the tight end. The position could be shared by senior transfer from Colorado State Brian Polendey and redshirt freshman Treylan Davis.