Oh(ffense), what a difference a WVU year makes

This is a subject to be tackled in next week's print editions, after the vaunted -- or is it vaulted? -- West Virginia offense gets its chance at Syracuse's sixth-to-last-ranked defense Saturday at Mountaineer Field. But quarterback Patrick White tonight offered a piece of insight that requires prompt sharing.

"We have to understand every time we touch the ball, it's not going to be a big play or touchdown," White said on the subject of the unit that Coach Bill Stewart has started calling a "ball-control" offense. "Coach [Jeff] Mullen's philosphy is, every down is third-and-four."

Let's pause to allow for proper digestion: They're always shooting for four yards, minimum. Maybe that explains some of the short-yardage sweeps, huh?

Some numbers with which to wash that down: Through five games last season -- with Steve Slaton, Owen Schmitt and Darius Reynaud on hand, of course, but also with White and Noel Devine and the same offensive line as well -- the Mountaineers averaged 40.4 points and 507 yards offensively. Through five games this season, they averaged 23.2 points (nearly half as many) and 357 yards (two-thirds as many). At this point last year, they had 41 offensive plays and 10 touchdowns of 20-plus yards; this fall, they have 14 (one-third as many) and five (half). More astonishingly, at this point last year, they had 20 running plays and seven touchdowns of 20-plus yards; this fall, they have nine (less than half) and one (a margin so wide it blew out my abacus). There were, by this juncture a year ago, a half-dozen plays from scrimmage and three touchdowns longer than any single play these current Mountaineers have produced yet, and their top three are all quarterback rushes.

While receiver Tito Gonzales maintains that Mullen the offensive coordinator is locking away the offense for full unveiling later in the season, it may well set off alarms if the Mountaineers this Saturday cannot shred Syracuse, which ranks 114th (of 119 major-college teams) in yards permitted per game, at 462, and 111th in points permitted per game, at 36.

One final note: White, withheld from contact in practice tonight and perhaps most of the week, didn't look so good to me, though I'm neither a trained medical professional nor someone who slept the night before in a chain hotel. Said he of the lingering "dinging," in Stewart's words, from Rutgers last Saturday: "I’ve never had my bell rung like that, but, playing football, you are going to get hit. I got hit. I feel pretty much normal."

Pretty much.