"It was mostly from friends, but I got a whole rack of e-mails talking about, 'Oh, he's still fumbling at practice,'" Clarke said, shaking his head. "I dropped the ball in warm-ups. Warm-ups.''

With friends like that ...

But such is the reputation Clarke now carries with him everywhere he goes. If he were spotted in a grocery store and a loaf of bread slipped out of his hands, passers-by would just shake their heads and groan.

"Figures,'' they would mumble. "He's a fumbler.''

Is he miscast? Well, the cold, hard facts say no.

Yes, West Virginia's 6-foot, 228-pound junior fullback has plenty going for him and is, in fact, the most experienced running back on the Mountaineers' roster, by far. In two seasons he has carried the ball 140 times. That's more than twice as many carries as the second-most experienced back on the team, Shawne Alston, who has 62 carries.

With Noel Devine and his 728 career carries gone, the rest of West Virginia's running backs combined have been handed the ball just 33 times. Shoot, Clarke has nearly half that many touchdowns - 16.

But there is also that pesky matter of holding onto the football.

Is it a bad rap?

"Somewhat,'' Clarke said. "It's about 50-50.''

That would be 50 percent of people look at Ryan Clarke and their first thought is that he's a football player. The other 50 percent see him as a football player who fumbles.

It is inescapable, of course, because of his history.

But in truth, there haven't been a lot of fumbles by Clarke. But when he does drop the ball, it is usually memorable.

The most egregious example is the one that sticks with everyone because it was so critical. In overtime at Connecticut last fall, Clarke fumbled the ball on first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, wiping out a near-certain chance for a touchdown. The Huskies went on to kick a field goal five plays later and it was the difference not only in the game, but the season.

Had WVU won that game it likely would have gone on to win the Big East outright and play in a BCS bowl game. Instead, UConn finished in a three-way tie with WVU and Pitt and played in the Fiesta Bowl.

And Clarke is still playing the role of the goat.

It's enough to break a guy's confidence or will, but Clarke lives with it.

"I've never lost any confidence,'' Clarke said. "I've still got one goal, trying to be the best player I can be. It's not my job to really worry about everybody else's concern. But it gets a little annoying sometimes, hearing it all the time.''

Unfortunately for Clarke, hearing about it isn't limited to the e-mails and texts and Facebook posts he stumbles upon daily. It also comes from his coaches.

When Dana Holgorsen and his new offensive staff arrived in the spring, it was the perfect opportunity for Clarke to put behind him any perception of bad traits. Holgorsen wasn't around when Clarke fumbled the ball last fall and he didn't care what had happened in the past. Clarke began the spring with a clean slate.

But then he went and ruined it by coughing up the ball in practice.

"He's a guy that can carry the ball and he's a guy that can block. The better he gets at both those aspects, the more he's going to play,'' Holgorsen said in the spring. "But if he puts the ball on the ground again he's not going to play at all.''

Clarke knows all of this well.

"I've just got to work hard on the little stuff that's going to make me better and not cause those problems,'' Clarke said. "Like fumbling.''

In truth, Clarke doesn't consider himself a fumbler. He said he's never had a terrible history of failing to hold onto the football, but the fact is that most running backs don't. Those drops, though, tend to be magnified when they come at critical points. So Clarke will keep working as hard as he can on securing the ball.

He's not alone, of course. Practice each day is filled with ball-security drills for the running backs, even those who don't have fumbling issues. In fact, the drop that Clarke had in warm-ups the first day - the source of those e-mails - wasn't just a matter of the ball slipping out. Running backs coach Robert Gillespie was grabbing at it and trying to tear it away.

"He almost broke my arm,'' Clarke said.

And know, too, that West Virginia would love to have a non-fumbling Clarke available to even further diversify an already multiple offense. The guy has tailback skills in a fullback body, which is a rare commodity, especially on a team loaded with smaller backs like Vernard Roberts, Trey Johnson and freshmen Dustin Garrison and Andrew Buie. Throw in bigger backs like Shawne Alston and fullbacks Matt Lindamood and Ricky Kovatch and there is plenty of competition.

"Everybody's trying to separate themselves right now, just trying to get a position,'' Clarke said. "During camp there are no friends. We're all teammates and you want everybody to do their best, but you have to watch out for yourself, do everything you can and not make mistakes.''

Like fumbling the football. It's easy to forget that Clarke wasn't alone in fumbling, either last year in general or in that UConn loss, in which WVU fumbled seven times and lost four. It is also long forgotten that a big reason West Virginia had first-and-goal at the 1 was Clarke. He'd carried three straight times and gained 3, 8 and 4 yards to get the ball to that point.

So in other words, the guy is worth saving.

"I've already grown from it,'' Clarke said. "I've been hearing it for a long time now. I did it, I've got to get used to it and make the adjustment.''

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