MORGANTOWN — The words had barely passed through Jeff Mullen’s lips and begun resonating through the dining area of the Milan Puskar Center that was housing a pre-spring football media luncheon.

So startling was this proclamation from West Virginia’s new offensive coordinator that you expected to hear an audible gasp, if not downright laughter from those who have chronicled WVU football.

“I believe in balance,” Mullen had said as he began outlining the offensive philosophy he brings with him from Wake Forest.

Balance? What’s balance?

In West Virginia, you balance a checkbook, not an offense.

Balance is for acrobats and tightrope walkers.

In football, you run the ball.

At least that’s how it was. In an ideal world, Mullen would actually throw the football.

“You see teams that are this high in running and this low in passing or this high in passing and this low in rushing statistically. They win a lot of football games, but it’s very hard to win a championship,” he explained.

Did he not hear that West Virginia rushed for 3,864 yards last year and passed for 2,067? That it rushed for as many as 517 yards in a game last year, but never passed for as many as 250 yards? That it ran the ball 628 times and threw it 265?

Balance?

Did he know that over the past two years, WVU had rushed for 7,803 yards and passed for 4,126 yards?

If they were off-balance, so, too, were the defenses because WVU scored 133 touchdowns and 1,020 points in two years.

When all this was brought up to Mullen, he made a bit of an admission about talking about balance on this team.

“That’s coach talk,” he finally said.

The truth is, every coach wants balance because it causes problems for opponents in preparation, but you do what you have to do to win, and at West Virginia, that has been run, run, run.

Mullen says there will be some differences, that there will be more motion and different formations, but the emphasis isn’t on changing the system.

“I don’t want it to be too much different. You’re talking about a group of men who left here who were very successful coaches, and they installed one of the best offenses in the country. I’m not going to come in here and turn it around,” he said.

The makeover may have to be more dramatic, though, than Mullen is letting on because this really isn’t your old Mountaineers any more, even though Pat White remains as the center of the offensive universe, and Noel Devine adds a second breakaway threat.

As spring practice begins, there are some important ingredients missing. Steve Slaton, even the one who slowed a step last year, has decided to enter the NFL draft, leaving Devine as the No. 1 running back, and a sophomore named Michael Poitier as his backup.

The two of them combined weigh only 35 pounds more than starting offensive tackle Ryan Stanchek.

What’s more, fullback/tight end Owen Schmitt is also gone, and right now the Mountaineers don’t have a scholarship tight end on their roster. The current fullback may be Thor Merrow, who a couple of weeks ago was playing defensive line.

So who the Schmitt is going to block for White and Devine? And who’s going to get tough third-down yardage?

The running profile has definitely changed.

“We’re searching the country right now for a junior college kid who can fill in the gap or maybe a high school kid who fell through the cracks,” Mullen admitted. “Having said that, we have enough talent here to fill it out if we don’t find any more players.”

While the running game will be the meat and potatoes of the offense, Mullen is going to have to find a way to throw more than in the past, because this year when teams crowd the box with nine men, three cheerleaders, a waterboy and the team mascot, Schmitt isn’t going to be around to dynamite a hole for a running back to slither through.

“Are we going to be good running the ball? Absolutely, and we’re going to continue to do that. That will be the emphasis of our offense,” Mullen vowed. “The throw part comes in this spring because when I looked at tape from last year, there were some numerical disadvantages to running the football against certain defenses. I think you need a legitimate answer to that, and that’s where the balance comes in.

“But clearly, it’s not going to be a throwing offense. It will be as balanced as the kids will let us be.”

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.