Establishing the Run ‘Critical’ For West Virginia’s Success
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MORGANTOWN -- It has become more and more evident as the season has unwound that No. 6 West Virginia's chances for maintaining its unbeaten record (5-0, 3-0 Big 12) and challenging for a first Big 12 Conference title and a spot in the College Football Playoff rest on its ability to build and maintain a consistent running attack.
That begins tonight a 7 p.m. at Jack Trice Stadium when the Mountaineers take on an Iowa State squad (2-3, 1-2 Big 12) coming off a big win at Oklahoma State last weekend.
"Critical, without a doubt," WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We ran the ball against them last year. I don't remember the number exactly, but I was happy with how we ran the ball against them last year.
"They give us favorable boxes, but they do a really nice job of filling gaps from second- and third-level defenders, which usually means that you can get 5 (yards), but getting 8 to 10 is hard. You have to be patient with that, and I thought that we did an outstanding job last year being patient with running the ball. Last week, we did the same thing. I thought we did a good job of running the ball until we got into the red zone and then we didn't do a good job at that."
WVU rushed the football 47 times against the Cyclones for 208 yards in a 20-16 victory over ISU at Milan Puskar Stadium a year ago. Then-senior Justin Crawford led the way with 102 yards on 25 carries while Kennedy McKoy finished with 60 yards on 12 carries.
McKoy returns and has shown flashes of the play which made him a sought-after recruit following high school.
The North Carolina native has carried the football 48 times for 288 yards (6.0 ypc) and a pair of touchdowns in WVU's first five games.
Also, back is fellow junior Martell Pettaway, who made his first career starts against the Cyclones two seasons ago, finishing with 181 yards and a touchdown in the Mountaineers' 49-19 victory.
He has carried the ball 41 times so far in 2018 and rushed for 213 yards (5.2 ypc).
McKoy and Pettaway have some new faces joining them in the backfield and they are making an impact.
"Not really," Holgorsen said when asked if it mattered who lined up behind quarterback Will Grier.
"Those guys all practice the same. We don't call plays differently based on who is in the game, we really don't. Some guys get hot hands and you go with them. Some guys probably do a little better in maybe one specific area than the others, but not to where it's so drastic to where we really change what we do based on who that guy is.
"A lot of times, (offensive coordinator) Jake (Spavital) doesn't know which one is in there because it can't matter.
"We train all of them to do the same stuff."
True freshman Leddie Brown has made the biggest impact to date, rushing for a team-leading 296 yards on 51 attempts (5.8 ypc) and three touchdowns.
The first-year running back is coming off his first 100-yard rushing performance in WVU's 38-22 win over Kansas last weekend and added a 15-yard scoring catch from Grier.
"He's a freak athlete," Grier said. "He's big and loves the game. He's passionate and runs hard. He's going to continue to get better; he's a really good player.
"That group (the running backs) as a whole challenges each other, they practice really hard as a group in every aspect -- pass blocking, getting out of the backfield and run game.
"It shows that practice translates, and these guys practice hard, and they're all playing at a really high level right now."
WVU's game against ISU will be televised on Fox Sports 1 with Tim Brando providing the play-by-play, Spencer Tillman the analysis and Holly Sonders wondering the sidelines.