NEWPORT, R.I. — It has come along slowly, as most evolutionary changes do, but when West Virginia takes the field this year the offense will not be what you remember from the glory days … unless your glory days are more Don Nehlen and less Rich Rodriguez.

Bill Stewart enters his third full season as West Virginia’s coach and he is planning, along with his offensive cohort, Jeff Mullen, to follow what he perceives to be a trend and go away from the spread that Rodriguez brought to the Mountaineers and more toward the traditional I formation.

The reason?

Quite simply it is the talent at hand.

“Geno Smith is not Patrick White,” Bill Stewart said. “The other guys I have at quarterback (freshmen Barry Brunetti and Jeremy Johnson) are not Patrick. I have to do a lot of different stuff.”

When you have a Patrick White or a Rasheed Marshall, superior athletes who put pressure on the edges, the spread makes sense. But when your strength really is in a tailback type like Noel Devine, who is more comfortable running out of the I, and when you have a fullback like Ryan Clarke, there comes a time to make the adjustments.

Stewart is not alone.

“Randy Edsell (at Connecticut) is in the I more. Dave Wannstedt (at Pitt) is in the I. I think America is going to be in the I more,” Stewart predicted.

This is how football works. There is a hot offense that comes along and the defenses begin to catch up. Stewart believes that’s happening at the moment to the spread.

He remembers some other fashionable offenses that threatened to change football.

“If you go wishbone, wishbone, wishbone, well, they learn how to defend it. If you go back to the veer, veer, veer, even before the wishbone, they learned how to defend that. Then came the spread. It’s just a trend. I think you are now going to see more balanced offenses.”

This is especially true in the Big East, where there is a shortage of experienced quarterbacks.

The spread, you see, requires first and foremost a quarterback capable of making quick reads, running the ball, throwing the ball and thinking quickly on his feet. All of that comes with experience.

White, if you will think back, was far more effective as a quarterback in his junior and senior years than in his first and second years.

Right now the Big East’s most experienced quarterback in terms of number of starts is Tom Savage at Rutgers and he is a sophomore with just 11 starts. It’s that way throughout the league, which has talented but inexperienced quarterbacks.

Take Pitt, which lost Bill Stull from last year and now breaks in a redshirt sophomore in Tino Sunseri.

Wannstedt has never been a spread guy, but this year in particular he knows that the spread will not work with what he has. At tailback he has the returning Big East Offensive Player of the Year in Dion Lewis, who as a freshman gained more than 1,800 yards.

That means that he is the focal point of the offense with the quarterback there mainly to play mistake-free football.

“Our quarterback is going to have to make plays in every game, like every quarterback does,” Wannstedt admitted at Big East media day. “But we’re not a quarterback driven offense where he’s carrying the ball and throwing the ball and basically we go as he goes.”

Instead, they just want him to complete some third down plays, stretch the field to Jonathan Baldwin with enough success that teams can’t bunch up and key off Lewis, and not turn the ball over.

“We can find some ways to score some points running the ball and we have some good weapons that can assist [Sunseri],” Wannstedt concluded.

Stewart believes the same is true of Smith and his offense. With Devine a big-play threat and with some quick, fast receivers for Smith to connect with, there are enough options to get away from the spread stuff as a steady diet.

This becomes even truer with Smith coming off a broken foot and no experienced backup.

Stewart will not, however, limit Smith, something he got from no less a quarterback than Jim McMahon, the former Brigham Young and Chicago Bears’ great. Stewart was paired with him in a golf tournament this past spring.

“I said you played early, you played as a sophomore. What do I tell my young guy?” Stewart began. “Now this is Jim McMahon. You know, I’m telling him we have to move the chains, spread the wealth, get the ball to this guy or that guy. He looked at me and said ‘That’s all good coach, but I’ll tell you one thing, don’t harness that youngster.’”

Stewart was surprised to hear that. He told McMahon that Smith is only a sophomore, but he wasn’t buying that.

“Tell him it’s OK to go for 7, not just 3. Don’t be telling him you’re at midfield, you’ll be in field goal range soon, don’t turn the ball over. How many negative things have you put in his mind? Don’t harness him. You’ve got to control him, but let him go play a little bit,” McMahon said.

Stewart smiled and said to McMahon, “You know what? I like that.”

And that’s the approach he plans to take.

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