There was a buzz in the press box Saturday afternoon when WVU’s offense took the field for the first time and the sneaky media would finally be allowed to get a look at this group it’d been prevented from observing in full view in the summer. A few snickers followed as the debut fizzled.

Let history record that the Bill Stewart era of new, improved offense at West Virginia launched Saturday with the same aerial staple as the old era — another bubble screen.

The third and fourth pass plays were screens, too.

More to the point, though, the unveiling of their mildly-to-wildly tweaked passing game opened eyes, if not future defenses, without opening many pages from coordinator Jeff Mullen’s playbook.

“I put a squash to that,” Stewart admitted of a motioning, shifting, multi-faceted offense kept under wraps not for Vanillanova last weekend but for upstart East Carolina this one, and other games beyond.

“The reason I did,” added the new coach, “is I didn’t want to show too much.” 

The question now, though, is at what pace will the Mountaineers unveil their nuances?