Here’s a fun illustration of WVU’s depth on offense and exactly what it might do for the Mountaineers. Remember, WVU figures to have questions at quarterback and weapons at running back, which means there is incentive to run the ball and to use the running backs, but to also find ways to involve some bigger bodies to add more formations and more potential within those.

All of that is possible because of Rushel Shell, Dreamius Smith, Wendell Smallwood, Dustin Garrison and Andrew Buie, but also because of those bigger bodies.

WVU used to have none. WVU thinks it has three now, and I think flexing Cody Clay, Garrett Hope and Eli Wellman can add a lot to the offense, if not actually, than at least conceptually.

One such case presented itself Saturday when the Mountaineers, scrimmaging in front of nearly 6,000 fans at old Laidley Field, faced third down and one. Wellman was lined up at H-back to the left and Clay was affixed to the line on the right. The offense, wearing yellow helmets, white tops and yellow pants, handed the ball to Pitt transfer Rushel Shell, who had all the run-blocking he needed to plunge for the first down.

It’s a look fans should get prepared to see a lot of during the 2014 season.

“I feel like we’ve actually done a lot of tight end stuff lately,” Clay said. “I’m not going to talk too much about the scheme-side of things, but I’m pretty happy about it.”

Clay should be. He had nine receptions for 73 yards and a touchdown last season while Wellman redshirted. Now Dawson’s wheels are turning faster than the ones on those tractor trailers.

“Luckily those guys have really good ball skills,” Dawson said. “Both Eli and Cody have exceptionally good ball skills. A lot of guys like that, that’s their problem. They don’t catch the ball real clean, but those guys have exceptional ball skills, so we can put them out at the slot and do some stuff.”

Imagine an offense using a strength from a position of strength. It wouldn’t be forced, which is a wonderful thing for an offense that in the past has been engineered to pass.

We still spend a lot of time talking and thinking about the receivers, and there are, I guess, five of them and maybe more if Smallwood and Buie are realistic options. Yet you get the idea the roster has developed in such a way that if it makes sense to work this spring with backs of all size, that you might find ways to incorporate many of them into the Five Best Skill Players.

And those five might change a whole bunch, which obviously isn’t a bad thing.

On defense, there might actually be more better players, which means more starters and experienced veterans and more capably stocked positions. Yet the plan to build and make use of depth on offense really couldn’t be much different on offense than it is on defense.

Tony Gibson is on Team Simple. He’s paring down plays and coverages and looks and asking the players to be the masters of a few things instead of the possessors of many threats. He has players. He likes the players. He’s letting them play, and you see that work everywhere, whether it’s Alabama and it’s simple Cover One or Greg Robinson coming in midstream at Texas and turning things around last season.

A big part of building that feature is to be less diverse and less exotic than the offense, but no less effective.

“We don’t want guys moving around and jumping around all the time,” defensive coordinator Tony Gibson said. “We want to put guys in one position and teach them.”

A year ago, WVU had linebackers who would play defensive end and cornerbacks who would play safety. Defensive linemen and linebackers would play inside and outside. All of that was before a wave of injuries washed over the roster and forced a list of players to extend themselves beyond a point with which they or their coaches were comfortable.

The coaches still want defensive linemen and linebackers to know multiple positions, just in case, but they also want to have six or eight players ready to go, which means limiting what a player has to know. A starter will master his spot. If he needs to come out, a backup specifically trained for that spot comes into the game, which is an extension of Gibson’s plan to make things easier on his players so they can play with more freedom.

“Different linebackers have different responsibilities, so going into it they have you at ‘Sam’ and the next couple plays you’re at ‘Will,’ you’re like, ‘I have to change my whole mentality,’” said linebacker Isaiah Bruce, who was the team’s second-leading tackler as an inside linebacker in 2012, far less productive outside last season and back inside this season.

“Having one position and one spot, it makes you play so much faster.”