Credit on the diagram to Chris Brown at smartfootball.com.

This is a play that you’ve seen a whole bunch before. It’s a run. And a pass. Actually, it’s a run or a pass, and though you may say, “Wait, a run or a pass? I think I’d remember this chameleon of which you speak. I’ve never witnessed such a thing,” just trust me. You have seen it, even if you didn’t know it.

It’s Dana Holgorsen’s stick/draw play, which affords the offense, and Geno Smith in particular, the ability to run two short and quick pass plays or a slower-to-develop draw play. And as you might imagine, it’s one of WVU’s favorites.

“I don’t know about it being our favorite play, but let’s put it this way – last year, it was a very good play for us,” said offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson, who presides over a lot of plays that were very good last year. “Throughout the course of the season, I don’t know how many times we ran it, but that play was successful over 90 percent of the time.”

The Mountaineers didn’t run it very much against Marshall last season, but might use it a bunch Saturday. Maybe not the 15 or so times they ran it with great success against Maryland last season, but seeing as if WVU has the options it has now, figure you’ll see it a good bit.

By virtue of his new position, Tavon Austin (the Y) is now the top option on the play. That can’t be bad and the defense knows it. The stick/draw puts the linebacker into conflict and forces him to make a decision.

If the linebacker stays with Tavon, or if a linebacker spies the run and a second linebacker, or a nickel back, stays with Tavon, that creates an opening on the back side of the play. That means a screen-like pass into the flat to Jordan Thompson (H) with a receiver outside (Z) blocking. (Never mind the deep routes to the X or Z. There’s no time for them to develop.)

If neither short pass is there, WVU runs a draw with the running back … unless the draw is there from the jump, which is apparent if the middle of the defense fans to cover receivers.

Even as a last resort, the draw is at least favorable. If the defense has covered both pass routes — and I’ve been told there is sometimes a third pass option, which might be a pass in the flat to a second running back, if the play has one — it’s hard for the same defense to have the run covered. The numbers just don’t work.

In any event, the offensive line draw blocks, which means it’s almost retreating and giving ground to the defensive front. The front’s pursuit takes it up the field, but the draw to the back, who was just acting like he was pass blocking, catches the defense off balance and off guard.

At the very worst, the back squirts through the confusion and gets a few yards. Maybe be makes someone miss and gets a bigger gain. Ideally, he does squirts through and then hits the open space on the second level, which the defenders have left to cover receivers.

It’s the Mountaineers in a nut shell — they can run it fast and from all formations with virtually all personnel packages, it can gain chunks of yards and moves the chains and establish a rhythm, it gets the ball to its quick players on the go and in space and it either forces the defense to be basic or to focus on one aspect of the offense and leave another open to exploitation.