MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Last week’s 59-16 romp over Delaware State featured four rushing touchdowns by West Virginia. None of them were scored by Elijah Wellman, though the fullback made an impact on each.
“His job is to block people,” said Mountaineers coach Dana Holgorsen. “He’s like a sixth lineman up there. He played well (against Delaware State), he thumped some people pretty good.”
After coaches tabbed Wellman as their offensive MVP for the game, he related a familiar tale of finding fulfillment outside the boxscores.
“I don’t care about scoring touchdowns,” he said. “If I get one here and there, that’s awesome. But those guys run through those holes untouched and they smack me on the helmet on the sideline, that’s good enough for me.”
A fifth-year senior from Spring Valley High in Huntington, Wellman has yet to carry the football in 2017. Still, his impact remains substantial — whether he’s clearing holes for Big 12 leading rusher Justin Crawford or splitting wide at receiver to force the defense to show its hand.
West Virginia’s starting offense has scored 18 touchdowns this season, with Wellman in formation on 15 of them.
“He’s the guy that makes us more multiple,” said offensive coordinator Jake Spavital. “You take Eli out of the game and you’re going to see a lot more spread sets, because we don’t have enough of those body types.”
On the opening kickoff last week, Wellman’s block sprang Marcus Simms for an 80-yard return. Because Wellman is WVU’s only scholarship fullback, however, coaches plan to reduce his special-teams responsibilities.
“I’d like to be out there as much as I can, but it makes sense what the coaches are doing,” Wellman said. “Like on the punt shield, those guys are running 10 or 12 yards at you and trying to blow you up. I don’t want to take one of those (hits) and be out of a game just because I was on punt shield and got blown up.”
Holgorsen has evolved into a fullback’s kind of coach. That wasn’t the case during his 10 years at Texas Tech or Houston, where the spread attacks favored four-receiver sets. If a former Air Raid play-caller can embrace a player like Wellman, it’s no wonder fullbacks and H-backs are staging a marginal comeback across the offensive landscape.
This is where Holgorsen pumps the brakes on the nostalgia train, saying college football probably won’t ever return to the era “where you’re going to see that guy in a three-point stance dotting the ‘I’ behind the quarterback.” Instead, it’s the Pistol or Diamond formations that create a sixth gap in the running game and force defenses to account.
Wellman, adorned in camo ballcaps during the week and black face paint on gamedays, is the spitting image of a West Virginia team captain — and a key reason why Crawford averages 108 yards per game, 7.8 per carry and has scored five touchdowns.
The fullback even owns four career touchdowns himself, along with more helmet smacks than you can count.