(I’m not traveling this weekend, so why not a full Friday before the Feedback?)

Noel Devine carries this season? 73. Runs of at least 20 yards? Five. Touchdowns? Six. Times I’ve sat in the press box and remarked at one particular play “Wow, that looked bad”? Innumerable.

Again and again Noel takes a handoff and heads one way, then slams the breaks, turns the wheel and floors it in another direction. Very weird. It’s gotten to be such an — well, I can’t call it an epidemic because it always seems to work — intriguing occurrence that several of us in the press box figured it had to be planned that way. (Reporters! Brilliant!)

Then again, would a team intentionaly tempt disaster every time it calls that play? Would a coach design a play that looks as awkward as the last dance at my eighth grade formal? Not a chance, right? Right? Isn’t that right, Chris Beatty?

“It’s designed that way,” running backs coach Chris Beatty said. “We do that on purpose. We’re trying to make it look like an outside zone play so it’s hard to distinguish between the two and so we get (defensive) guys flowing between the blocks.”

Wonderful …

I still contend it’s a bizarre little play. So many things have to line up just right — the snap, the handoff, the pulling lineman, the cutback — and it has to happen amid what I guess we can call organized confusion.

“We’re trying to make it look like one play when actually we’re running another,” offensive line coach Dave Johnson said. “The backfield in reality is not matched up correctly with the way we’re blocking it. It may look a little funky, but it’s worked exactly the way we want it to work.”

Never mind the potential for trouble when there’s just as much for touchdowns. It’s now a go-to play for the Mountaineers, who can mix it up with their outside zone plays for a pretty potent mix. Not too bad for a play that started out with shaky confidence.

“I remember the first time we ran it – actually, the first couple times we ran it – I’d hand the ball off and see a (defensive) guy running free off the edge and I was like, ‘Oh, no,'” Brown said. “I used to think that guy was going to blow up the play, but then you’ve got the guy pulling coming over and knocking him out of there. I understand the funny way it looks, but that’s the beauty of it. It’s a unique play.”