MORGANTOWN - Bill Stewart has made it clear that he wants to see West Virginia run more option plays on offense. And no one is arguing the point after West Virginia struggle to get its running game going through the first two games of the season.

The option works best, though, when there are, well, options. If quarterback Pat White is the only threat, that's no option. If Noel Devine and/or Jock Sanders are added into the mix, those options increase.

What really makes it effective, though, is the threat of a powerful fullback who forces linebackers to stay in the box. If they stray in an effort to stop the quarterback or the pitch man, the fullback gets the ball. If they stay put, the outside lanes are less clogged.

As Stewart quite rightly pointed out, though, West Virginia doesn't have quite the power option now that it had when Owen Schmitt was playing fullback. So the option attack begins at a bit of a disadvantage.

Enter Will Johnson, the Mountaineers' new fullback.

"I can definitely see myself doing that,'' Johnson said. "Just give me a chance to see what I can do.''

The problem, of course, is that Johnson is a wide receiver-turned-tight end-turned-fullback. And while at 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds he's no small guy, he's not the 250-pound Schmitt.

And while Johnson said he feels comfortable being handed the role, he has a lot to learn.

"There's a lot of difference between running the ball and catching the ball. There's a lot more technique you need to learn,'' Johnson said. "You have to know running the ball, holding onto the ball, running low. ... I still haven't been taking any dives yet. I guess they don't think I'm big enough.''

The option can still be run without a fullback, of course. West Virginia can put Devine and Sanders - both mini-backs - beside White and present a good triple threat. Or perhaps Maxwell Anderson will see some time at fullback.

Option or not, West Virginia seems committed to returning to the running game that made it such an offensive powerhouse in recent years.

And that means more use of the zone read plays where the offensive line leads and White and Devine run laterally and then pick a hole.

"We've been working it a lot, getting everything together and getting everybody organized on the same page,'' White said. "We definitely have to establish the run. If you can't run the ball people are just going to sit out in coverage and stop everything. You've got to balance it out and have both.''

And as for the option that Stewart wants to run?

"I think we're just going to try to establish the run,'' White said. "And that's our running game. But we have to do whatever we can to get the ball rolling again.''

White isn't complaining about how the offense has changed this season because he understands the philosophy behind it. West Virginia's new coaching staff wants to expand the role of others besides White and Devine so that when teams load up to stop those two there will be options.

"I just think they're trying to get the ball in playmakers' hands,'' White said. "We have a lot of good athletes who can do big things for us. We have to utilize each and every one of them.''

When Pat McAfee began his career at West Virginia, punting was an afterthought.

Actually, it was no thought at all.

McAfee was West Virginia's kicker, having won the job as a freshman pretty much by default, given that he had no real serious competition. He played around as a punter that season in practice, but Phil Brady was the guy and Scott Kozlowski was his backup.

Then late in McAfee's sophomore year, Kozlowski made a critical mistake, punting the ball the wrong way in a game at Louisville. The Cardinals returned it for a touchdown and Kozlowski was benched in favor of a kicker who, for the most part, had merely toyed with punting the ball. McAfee has been both the kicker and punter ever since.

A year from now, McAfee is fairly likely to be on an NFL roster somewhere. It could be as a kicker. It could be as a punter. It could be as both.

So which is his strength?

"I don't know. It depends on the day you ask me,'' McAfee said. "Some days I punt the ball and I think to myself, 'Wow, I could probably punt in the NFL.' Then there are days when I kick the ball and think, 'Wow, I could probably kick.' So I don't really know. I'm trying to get better at each right now so we can finish out the season well. But as a senior you have to think ahead. And I really do think I have the tools to do both.''

On a 53-man NFL roster, of course, the ability to do both is huge. And that's why McAfee isn't going to cut back on the work he does in either aspect.

"I've thought about that. Don't worry,'' McAfee said. "It's a bigger paycheck, too.''

If anyone thinks West Virginia's players haven't heard the grumblings about the team's loss to East Carolina, think again.

White, though, doesn't let it bother him.

"That's going to happen anywhere - in any stadium with any team,'' White said. "If you're not doing what the fans want you to do or they're unhappy, they can turn against you. But we have many, many loyal fans in West Virginia. I'm definitely not complaining about that.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.