MORGANTOWN — Sometimes, in this business, you stumble upon things that you really didn’t know, and so it was this past week while trying to prepare a column on West Virginia running back Noel Devine’s chances to win the Heisman Trophy.

True, we were aware that offensive football in college had morphed into a game where lithe, slithery quarterbacks were at a premium and that the fleet, smaller running back had all but chased the great big back out of the limelight.

We just never really had put it all together in our mind until we saw that only two running backs had won the Heisman Trophy since 1999 and that quarterbacks had dominated all the other awards. While we knew about Tim Tebow and Vince Young and the likes, we had forgotten just how dominant running backs had been through what you still must consider the prime years of college football — the 1970s and 1980s.

The names alone bring back memories of greatness. There was George Rogers at South Carolina and Herschel Walker at Georgia, Archie Griffin at Ohio State and Earl Campbell at Texas and Marcus Allen at USC and … you get the picture.

These were men who ran 4.4 40s, maybe lower, while some of them were packing 220 or 230 natural pounds, not the result of the modern day physical training. They were almost physical freaks who could run through tackles, around them and then run away from them when they got free.

It was the result sometimes of the wishbone formation, but more of a philosophy that running the ball was safer than passing it and that football was not a game of finesse, but a game of strength and power.

Why did it change? How did it change?

We are fortunate to have in our midst a man who knows, who lived and coached through those days, coaching himself into the College Football Hall of Fame on a background built on that kind of football.

“Football is still a Spartan game,” Don Nehlen said after returning from a round of golf at the Pines and a couple of hours of lawn work around the house, perhaps replacing his practice divots.

By that he means that nothing has replaced sweat and pain and playing hard and giving everything you have inside you plus that other 10 percent they talk about.

But the approach is different and there are reasons.

“In high schools they are throwing the ball more than they ever have,” Nehlen noted, perhaps putting the cart before the horse, perhaps not.

The result, though, was that there was less grass roots emphasis on the running game and more skill position players being produced.

“College coaches decided they had more quarterbacks and receivers who had good skills. When I started coaching, anyone could play wide receiver,” Nehlen noted.

That, of course, changed over the years, but even then you had more tall, rangy wide receivers who could run routes and catch the ball rather than the Jock Sanders type of wide receiver. At the same time the quarterbacks were mostly anchored in the I-formation, faking into the line and running play-action passes.

They were no threat to run, the field being stretched vertically, not horizontally.

That was what made Major Harris, WVU’s Hall of Fame quarterback under Nehlen, so dynamic, for he could run as well as throw. He came along in an era when that was frowned upon, Nehlen being the only coach willing to allow him to play quarterback.

“Today there is more finesse and speed than there used to be,” Nehlen said. 

Nehlen progressed along with football. As much as they throw today, he has the all-time leading passer at the school in Marc Bulger. He also developed the likes of Oliver Luck, Harris and Jeff Hostetler at quarterback.

He did it while always keeping the running back as the focal point, other than when Bulger was lighting them up with David Saunders and Shawn Foreman catching passes. He also had Avon Cobourne and Amos Zereoue and the likes.

The game has evolved into a spread offense game, but Nehlen has this dream.

He is in love with what he’s seen of Noel Devine.

“You give him the ball 30 times a game and he’ll break four. I guarantee it,” Nehlen said. “I told Bill (Stewart) he’s crazy if he doesn’t do it.”

Stewart has been more protective of Devine, trying to keep his carries to 20 a game and get him the ball on a few passes. He knows how important he is when healthy and knows he’s not the biggest of players.

But this year there is an unproven quarterback and the major weapon is Devine.

“Imagine him in the I-formation,” Nehlen said. “You put the ball in his belly and pull it out. The linebackers and safeties would have to be at the line of scrimmage when he came through.”

Interestingly, things are changing in football even now. Just as the wishbone dominated until figured out, the spread is now finding defenses are catching up with it by going with speed and smaller players on defense.

The evolution continues and, who knows, it might go back to mixing some I-formation with Devine and big Ryan Clarke at fullback.

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