MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jake Spavital’s role as West Virginia’s offensive coordinator, at least during spring practice, is in the foundational phase. Deciding what to keep from previous seasons (quite a bit) and testing out new components that may or may not become part of 2017.
This is not Spavital’s mission alone. We know head coach Dana Holgorsen will remain intricately involved, even though he’s no longer calling plays. The contributions some fans may miss stem from offensive line coach Joe Wickline and running backs coach Tony Dews, who have their opinions on their personnel and what best ways to utilize them.
The answers aren’t always obvious, and the inclinations of strong-willed, experienced individuals don’t always align. Because Spavital and Dews are new to these players, their evaluations are being reshaped daily.
Those three assistants and Holgorsen allotted a hefty chunk of spring practice to determining where the running game strengths exist.
“We’ve ran the ball as much in these first 10 practices as I ever have,” said Holgorsen before Tuesday’s scrimmage periods shifted the emphasis to the passing game. “Offensively, I like where we are at with it.
“There are some different things in the run game that we are experimenting with. Just having Wick and coach Dews and Jake, they bring some different ideas to the table that we are entertaining. It is the time of the year to be able to experiment with it just a little bit.”
The inside zone package that became a hallmark of West Virginia’s running game in recent seasons won’t be replaced, though it may be tweaked. The way Spavital ran it at Cal won’t necessarily be replicated at WVU where he says the offensive line talent is more flush and the running backs have more versatile skill sets.
“If you talk about inside zone, I’ve been a part of five different teams that ran it five different ways,” Spavital said. “We’ve been messing around with that a bit, but we’re all getting on the same page with that.”
Spavital wants to pile up the reps this spring, and in the interest of time efficiency, he anticipates more than 90 percent of the offense will carry over. The stuff coaches don’t like gets scrapped, and the stuff they trust will become film cut-ups to use as teaching tools this summer.