Beginning Wednesday when the Mountaineers open spring practice, all of that changes.

How dramatically it changes, perhaps, remains to be seen. After all, new offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen admits, to a point, that even he doesn't know what the finished product for 2011 will be because he will adapt somewhat to the personnel available to him.

"Year one is going to be, 'What do we have, what are we good at and what do we have to do to win?'" Holgorsen said shortly after he was hired. "You'd better take what you've got and get good at something.''

Listen to Holgorsen's quarterbacks coach, though, and you get the distinct idea that even the traditional idea of the spread offense is out. OK, so perhaps that's nit-picking with terminology, but listening to the way Shannon Dawson explains it, the changes are going to be dramatic.

You can even throw out the word spread.

"The term 'spread' is thrown around a little too much because people look at offenses and if you're in a four-receiver set, everybody labels it a spread offense,'' Dawson said. "You can throw that term out. I don't think it's a very good term because most people spread it out to run it.''

That's exactly what West Virginia has done for the better part of the last decade (WVU's season rushing leader over the past 10 seasons has averaged 132 yards per game), but here's the tip-off that all of that is about to change:

"Look at the stats of people around the country that run spread offenses. Take Florida, for example,'' Dawson said. "They run a four-receiver set, too, but they throw the ball 20-to-25 times a game. We're going to throw that in a half.''

Now that's going to be a change.

"Our offense is a pass-first offense. And then we run the football,'' Dawson said. "We're going to make them take away the pass first, and then it opens up the run. I think everybody else is the complete opposite. They're going to run and then when they take away the run they're going to throw it.''

To see what Holgorsen and Dawson have in mind, one needs only to check what the two did a year ago at two schools at two different levels.

Dawson was the offensive coordinator at Stephen F. Austin in Texas, where the Lumberjacks led the FCS in passing yards per game and ran for an average of only 80.8 yards. His offense averaged 36.2 points, 442.9 total yards and the average passing numbers for a single game last season were 30-of-50 for 362 yards. His quarterbacks - starter Jeremy Moses threw for over 13,000 career yards and completed more passes than anyone in FCS history - threw 35 touchdown passes and just 10 interceptions.

Holgorsen's offense at Oklahoma State, meanwhile, finished No. 1 in total offense among FBS schools and his quarterbacks, on average, were 27-for-41 for 345 yards. But he also had a 1,500-yard rusher in Kendall Hunter.

By contrast, West Virginia last year threw the football more than at any time since Marc Bulger was around in the late 1990s. And the Mountaineers averaged 18-for-29 passing and 213 yards. So it's easy to see that there is big change afoot. West Virginia threw the football on 42 percent of its plays, by far the highest percentage in the last 10 years. Stephen F. Austin threw it 67 percent of the time, Oklahoma State 54 percent.

"There were six games last year at Stephen F. Austin where at least 14 kids caught a pass, which is pretty good,'' said Dawson, who watched 15 players catch a pass in a game against Albany. "Now on a regular day, with the way we run tempo and no huddle, I would venture to guess that eight receivers are going to play in any game.

"You want to be two-deep at every position because unless you're special, you can't take every single rep. We're going to run 85 to 90 plays a game. For a guy to go full speed that many reps is just tough. I would guess that the No. 1 receiver is going to take 70 percent [of the reps] and the No. 2 receiver is going to take 30 percent.''

Where, though, are Dawson and Holgorsen going to find eight receivers? There are only seven scholarship receivers on the roster heading into spring and only four have caught more than two college passes.

It's not hard to imagine that Tavon Austin, Stedman Bailey, Brad Starks, J.D. Woods and Ivan McCartney can be plugged into five of those spots, and Coley White (if he's not required to play some quarterback) and mid-year freshman Vernard Roberts will get good looks. But beyond that there is probably going to be a need for freshmen like Dante Campbell and KJ Myers to make an impact in August.

Then again, Dawson will no doubt include running backs in the receiver mix, and there are possibilities there, too, with guys like Trey Johnson and Daquan Hargrett and eventually freshmen Andrew Buie and Dustin Garrison.

"That's why we recruit [running backs] who can catch the football, so we can motion them out of the backfield and they can run routes against linebackers,'' Dawson said. "We all know they can't cover too well.''

There were, of course, no linebackers within hearing range.

Oh, and just so you know, the pre-spring depth chart does not list a tight end on offense, which could have been the case for the last 10 years, too, given the position's production. Tyler Urban is listed as the backup at the Y receiver spot.

In that sense, of course, the more things change the more they stay the same.

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.