MORGANTOWN - Jeff Mullen remembers thinking that when West Virginia named Bill Stewart its new football coach back in early January, perhaps there was a certain karma at work.

"When he got the job, I remember thinking, 'Finally, one of the good guys got a job,''' Mullen said. "One of the absolute good people in our profession got a great job.''

Perhaps the same can be said of Mullen, too.

OK, so we'll reserve judgment on the good guy part, but only because a 15-minute conversation isn't exactly time enough for much soul searching or character development. The guy does, however, seem to be in the basket of good eggs - soft-spoken, respectful; shoot, even baby-faced to a degree.

What isn't debatable, however, is the quality of the job Mullen landed as Stewart's new offensive coordinator at West Virginia. Wow. Now that's a great job. Talk about landing in the right place.

Think of it like a guy who has worked for years with a dream of being able to buy his first car, even if it's a 1972 Pinto that, well, let's just say it needs some work. He shows up at the dealership and they hand him the keys to a low-mileage Lamborghini.

Or maybe take the perspective of Mullen's 11-year-old son Nate, who wasn't quite sure he wanted to leave Winston-Salem, N.C., where dad had been an assistant coach at Wake Forest for more than half of Nate's young life.

"My son quickly figured out that we had Pat White,'' Mullen said, "and life was good.''

Life will be even better, of course, if Mullen is able to take his new job and run with it.

Face it, of all of West Virginia's new coaches - perhaps even Stewart included - Mullen is the one who finds himself on the spot. Doc Holliday and Steve Dunlap, a pair of grizzled vets returning home, are proven commodities. Ditto Dave Johnson. Dave Lockwood has a tall task rebuilding a depleted secondary, but the truth is no one will pay much attention until the first time one of his corners gets burned. Lonnie Galloway inherits a receiving corps that can't go anywhere but up. New running backs coach Chris Beatty has as his first pupil Noel Devine.

And then there's Mullen, who merely has to take an offense designed, constructed and literally babysat by Rich Rodriguez to be one of the most innovated and dissected in the country and make sure it doesn't flop. Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, Jeff, improve upon it, too.

Here are the keys. Let's see what you can do with it.

"The first thing you do is you don't break it. You've got to put your ego aside,'' Mullen said Wednesday. "Someone asked me, 'Don't you want to put your mark on something?' I don't need a mark. I need a win.''

Make no mistake about it, though, Mullen wants to improve West Virginia's offense. Sure, he has to replace some missing pieces, Steve Slaton and Darius Reynaud and Owen Schmitt first and foremost.

But the aforementioned Pat White is a great first piece in anyone's puzzle.

"The first thing you do is sit down with your quarterback and make sure he's comfortable with what he'd done in the past and what you're going to continue to do. And we will do that,'' Mullen said. "But I think [an NCAA rank of] 115th in the country in throwing the ball, there's room for improvement. And hopefully that's what we can do.''

"When he got the job, I remember thinking, 'Finally, one of the good guys got a job,''' Mullen said. "One of the absolute good people in our profession got a great job.''

Perhaps the same can be said of Mullen, too.

OK, so we'll reserve judgment on the good guy part, but only because a 15-minute conversation isn't exactly time enough for much soul searching or character development. The guy does, however, seem to be in the basket of good eggs - soft-spoken, respectful; shoot, even baby-faced to a degree.

What isn't debatable, however, is the quality of the job Mullen landed as Stewart's new offensive coordinator at West Virginia. Wow. Now that's a great job. Talk about landing in the right place.

Think of it like a guy who has worked for years with a dream of being able to buy his first car, even if it's a 1972 Pinto that, well, let's just say it needs some work. He shows up at the dealership and they hand him the keys to a low-mileage Lamborghini.

Or maybe take the perspective of Mullen's 11-year-old son Nate, who wasn't quite sure he wanted to leave Winston-Salem, N.C., where dad had been an assistant coach at Wake Forest for more than half of Nate's young life.

"My son quickly figured out that we had Pat White,'' Mullen said, "and life was good.''

Life will be even better, of course, if Mullen is able to take his new job and run with it.

Face it, of all of West Virginia's new coaches - perhaps even Stewart included - Mullen is the one who finds himself on the spot. Doc Holliday and Steve Dunlap, a pair of grizzled vets returning home, are proven commodities. Ditto Dave Johnson. Dave Lockwood has a tall task rebuilding a depleted secondary, but the truth is no one will pay much attention until the first time one of his corners gets burned. Lonnie Galloway inherits a receiving corps that can't go anywhere but up. New running backs coach Chris Beatty has as his first pupil Noel Devine.

And then there's Mullen, who merely has to take an offense designed, constructed and literally babysat by Rich Rodriguez to be one of the most innovated and dissected in the country and make sure it doesn't flop. Oh, and if it's not too much trouble, Jeff, improve upon it, too.

Here are the keys. Let's see what you can do with it.

"The first thing you do is you don't break it. You've got to put your ego aside,'' Mullen said Wednesday. "Someone asked me, 'Don't you want to put your mark on something?' I don't need a mark. I need a win.''

Make no mistake about it, though, Mullen wants to improve West Virginia's offense. Sure, he has to replace some missing pieces, Steve Slaton and Darius Reynaud and Owen Schmitt first and foremost.

But the aforementioned Pat White is a great first piece in anyone's puzzle.

"The first thing you do is sit down with your quarterback and make sure he's comfortable with what he'd done in the past and what you're going to continue to do. And we will do that,'' Mullen said. "But I think [an NCAA rank of] 115th in the country in throwing the ball, there's room for improvement. And hopefully that's what we can do.''

Indeed, while the Rodriguez spread was dynamic, the version seen for seven years at West Virginia lacked the very passing game that was its heart and soul during its incubation. On one hand that was to be expected because the spread is, at its core, a system that adapts to personnel. Rodriguez's personnel at West Virginia were suited to running the football. As much as he tried, he only occasionally was able to recruit the passers and catchers necessary to do anything else.

Mullen doesn't have much more in the way of personnel than did Rodriguez, but his philosophy is such that he will force the issue.

When Stewart was asked a few weeks back, for instance, what Mullen brought to the table, his answer was simple.

"Motion,'' he said.

And that means what?

"It means a lot of things. It gives you numbers advantages,'' Mullen said. "You can use the quarterback to be the extra hat, to get them spread out. You bring another guy in the backfield [through motion] and hand him the ball and now you have that same numerical advantage in the backfield without getting your quarterback beat up.

"Defensive coordinators make their calls first on your personnel grouping and then on your formation. Motion changes formation strengths and makes them, instead of just standing there with their cleats in the ground, makes them think, flat-foots them a little bit, gets them out of gaps. Run-fit players are now having to move into different positions to fit different gaps. It does a lot for you. If you can dress that same old football play up in a lot of different ways, you've not taken away from an offense's ability to play fast and smart and tough and physical, but you've caused the defense to think and be flat-footed and change and adjust when you run the same play.''

In truth, there wasn't much motion in the Rodriguez spread. Oh, sure, it was there, and occasionally one of those motion men would get the ball. Remember the Reynaud reverses?

The idea now, though, is to maximize that motion and create more confusion. Constantly.

"We can take some of the heat off Pat by allowing people other than him or the running back to run the football. We've got a system where we can use slot receivers with motion and get them touches in the run game,'' Mullen said. "And then in the throw game there are a lot of very efficient, high-percentage throws out there that are a lot like runs - very low risk, yet very high reward that we'll bring that they haven't seen. And then if we can protect and stretch and throw and catch, we'll get you vertically, as well. We'll look at all that stuff this spring.''

There are going to be some adjustments to be made, of course. But Mullen doesn't see that as burdensome.

"I think that's the easy part. Systematically, how you call plays and how you put things into different series groupings and different names for personnel groupings - all those little terms, with a little bit of work you can memorize that in a couple of practices. And the motions off of it, I really don't think that's the hardest part,'' Mullen said. "The hardest part is going to be the throw stuff - the pass protections, the hot systems, the route adjustments, all those things that go into having answers in the throw game. It's not just a matter of throw and catch.

"But I love flipping the ball around. Everything is risk-reward for me. There's low risk in running it, but there's not a lot of times where there's high reward. I think there are ways in the throw game where you can develop a low-risk throw package and gain some of that high reward. Yet having said that, there's a lot that goes into that. That's why I'm anxious to see where we are at the end of spring.''

As is everyone else.

To contact staff writer Dave Hickman, call 348-1734 or send e-mail to dphickm...@aol.com.