MORGANTOWN - The man in the middle is playing defense, and like so many others have lately, he sees Elijah Wellman coming.
"If you want to write about him scoring a touchdown," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said from behind the podium in the center of the room at his weekly news conference Tuesday, "then go ahead."
But this is not about the Mountaineers fullback becoming the young season's most productive pass-catcher. This is about "slipping into the end zone and catching an uncontested pass," as Holgorsen put it, but that's only part of the conversation.
Take your shovel and pat the loose dirt that covers a topic the Mountaineers seem to have buried early this season. WVU is no longer puzzled in the red zone, and Wellman is a reason why.
Well, he's more than one reason why. He's caught short touchdown passes in each of the past two games, "relatively easy balls to catch," as the coach said, that were worth 14 points and just 11 yards.
They're his only two receptions, and he's becoming reacquainted with the end zone. Wellman was the running back at Spring Valley High, and he had 18 touchdowns and more than 1,600 yards as a senior. He's carried twice and has just six receptions in 15 college games.
"I've kind of adapted to the difference between running the ball a lot and being the dude in high school and coming here," he said. "It's actually a lot less pressure playing like this than what it was like in high school."
Wellman knows that sounds familiar, and it's flattering. Ten years ago, Owen Schmitt debuted after he was the dude in high school and then for a Division II team. He started off as a blocker for WVU, but his skills were irresistible, and he became an increasingly dynamic part of the offense.
"He's an idol of mine, but I'm trying to be my own person as much as I can and leave a name for myself," Wellman said. "If that's the comparison being brought up, that's pretty cool to me, but it's not exactly what I'm trying to do."
His goal is to "make blocks, do stuff right, do everything I can for the team," and it's working. The Mountaineers have nine touchdowns in their past 12 red-zone possessions. Two belong to the 6-foot-2, 235-pound sophomore from Huntington. Three have been passes to someone other than Wellman. Four have been runs and none of them belong to Wellman.
But he's been on the field for seven of the nine touchdowns, and No. 23 WVU (3-0) is no longer taking questions about why it has to settle for three points instead of seven. The Mountaineers are now asking questions of the defense as they begin Big 12 play in Saturday's noon Fox Sports 1 game at No. 15 Oklahoma (3-0).
"It's a bunch of run/pass options," Holgorsen said.
It's then a guessing game for the defense, and Wellman is letting the offense win. Wellman scored on a 7-yard pass on the first drive against Maryland, his third career touchdown catch, all on the same play. He'd later level Maryland defenders on short touchdown runs by Wendell Smallwood and Rushel Shell.
When the time came for the Terrapins to defend a third-and-goal at their 1-yard line, they chose to crowd the line of scrimmage, and for good reason. WVU put a tight end on both sides of the offensive line, and Wellman was in his stance in the backfield, behind quarterback Skyler Howard and in front of Smallwood. The play was instead an arching pass from Howard into the far left corner of the end zone to Daikiel Shorts, who was alone with the only defender not at the line of scrimmage.
"Same thing," Holgorsen said. "It's a run/pass option. They take away the run, and then you throw it to the guys who slips behind them."
It doesn't work the same without Wellman. Defenses have to deal with him or deal with the consequences. They ought to know better than to let him leak out of the backfield when he's near the goal line, but a body on him is one less body available to defend another receiver or a running quarterback and one less player who can rally to a running play.
Defenses know he's also going to block for running backs, and the Mountaineers are using him to make that seem like their intent. If that creates a crowd inside, the outside is open for passes. If Wellman does lead the way on a run, he can clear holes or do just enough to make it too hard for the defense to recover in the tight space and short amount of time available inside the 20.
On Smallwood's touchdown run, Wellman hit a linebacker early and shoved him into the end zone. Smallwood didn't need much space, but Wellman gave him plenty. On Shell's touchdown run later, Wellman took out two defenders on the back side of the play, and that caused a traffic jam that gave Shell enough time to back the ball out and then hurry around the corner and into the end zone.
"He's the hidden piece nobody is really talking about with the way he's sticking his face in there and taking on the lead blocks for us," running backs coach JaJuan Seider said.
Wellman is growing as a red-zone weapon, a player the offense can use to take aim at opponents, but he was instrumental in the running game finishing with 304 yards against the Terrapins, the third-highest total under Holgorsen and the best since the home loss to the Sooners in 2012.
"He blocked better than I've seen," Holgorsen said.
The Mountaineers will use Wellman inside Oklahoma's 20, but they'll need him outside of there, as well. Oklahoma's personality on defense is to devote players to the area around the line of scrimmage and ask defensive backs to survive 1-on-1 matchups, sometimes with a safety or two over the top to help, but other times with the help stepping forward to assist against the run. WVU won't let the Sooners dictate to the offense, which means Wellman has to teach Oklahoma lessons.
"We're a little more interested in him working with good pad level and being pointed in the right direction and making sure you block the right guy, and do it with great pad level and finish the block," Holgorsen said. "That's way more important."