MORGANTOWN, W.Va. - You can chalk up Saturday’s surprisingly easy 49-19 victory over fired-up Iowa State to West Virginia’s depth chart.

 

The Mountaineers’ ninth victory of the season - and sixth in Big 12 play - was simply a matter of having some untested guys step up and perform. That's got to happen when a team plays seven Big 12 games in seven consecutive weeks.

 

We saw that with true freshman wide receiver Marcus Simms early in the second quarter when Ka’Raun White turned an ankle as he was being interfered during a long Skyler Howard pass. Simms came in and made a 48-yard touchdown reception to give West Virginia a 21-13 lead.

 

We saw several unfamiliar faces come in on defense as players, one after another, were helped to the sidelines. And we were also introduced to Martell Pettaway, a 5-foot-10-inch, 203-pound, true freshman from Detroit, Michigan, who entered Saturday’s game as the Mountaineers’ fourth-string running back.

 

The original plan was to redshirt Pettaway and get him ready for the 2017 season, but that changed early in the first quarter when Justin Crawford, who burned Oklahoma’s defense for 331 yards a week prior, limped off the field.

 

Standing next to Crawford on the sideline was starter Rushel Shell III dressed in street clothes. Standing next to those two was the other backup, Kennedy McKoy, who carried the ball twice (scoring a touchdown) before he could no longer go.

 

Therefore, it was either use fullback Elijah Wellman and quarterback Skyler Howard sparingly in the run game and throw the ball 50 times, or burn Pettaway’s redshirt and stick to the original game plan - run the ball right at Iowa State’s shifting defense.

 

“You do what works,” said West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen. “I’ve resigned myself to that. Whatever works do it. I don’t care about stats, I don’t care about how many times we throw it, I don’t care about how many times we run it, do whatever you’ve got to do to win a game.”

 

On Saturday, that meant running the football with the best available player he had to carry it - Pettaway.

 

“He’s been ready to go and there have been about three or four times when I’ve been real close to putting him in but we’ve always had another guy step up and carry the load for us,” said Holgorsen. “It just got to the point today when Crawford went down I knew we had to play him.

 

“He’s probably the reason we won today,” Holgorsen added.

 

Pettaway ran the football 30 times, gaining 181 yards and scoring a touchdown - most likely the best college debut for a running back in the 125 years West Virginia University has been playing football.

 

From memory, the only debut that comes close to Pettaway’s performance was true freshman Amos Zereoue’s season-opening game against Pitt in 1996 when he took his first college carry 69 yards for a touchdown and finished the night with 135 yards.

 

But Zereoue ran the ball just 12 times and was not a focal point of the offense against the Panthers.

 

Pettaway was the focal point of the offense Saturday because the best way to attack Iowa State’s defense was to run the football right at it. Wellman could do that a few times - Howard, too - but not on a consistent basis for the entire game.

 

Pettaway had to be the guy.

 

“He handled the ball 30 times and he caught a pass, too, so he was very locked in and tuned in,” said Holgorsen.

 

“We needed him, that’s the bottom line,” added running backs coach JaJuan Seider.

 

Seider admitted afterward that he thought Crawford was primed to have a big game against Iowa State based on the game plan they had going in and Crawford’s huge, 331-yard rushing performance a week prior against Oklahoma.

 

But those thoughts ended on Crawford’s seventh carry when he hobbled off the field.

 

“This was the type of game, the way they moved their fronts and the way he played against Oklahoma that he was going to hit some creases and be gone,” said Seider. “Well, it wasn’t him. It was Pettaway.”

 

It was Pettaway.

 

When Crawford came off the field and Pettaway was told he was going in on the next series, Howard went over to him and gave him a little pep talk.

 

“I said, ‘Hey it’s football. Just go out there and play,’” Howard said. “Of course, I had to mention ball security. My train of thought is when you get a guy who gets in there and wants to make big plays and he’s fighting, fighting, fighting, the play is over yards-wise and guys are ripping at (the ball) that’s when you’ve got to know. I didn’t have any doubt in his ball security, it’s just one of those things my mom says - I’ve just got to say it.”

 

Seider, too, was concerned about Pettaway’s ball security, particularly in the second half as his carries began to mount and he was starting to get a little winded.

 

“There were a couple of situations when I felt he was getting a little tired,” Seider said. “Later in the game, I was able to grab Dana and say, ‘Hey, let’s call timeout here. Let’s use one here so we don’t stub our toe with him.’ We were smart about how we handled him throughout the game.”

 

Holgorsen said the entire playbook was available while Pettaway was in the game. The only play Holgorsen said he was a little apprehensive about calling was the screen pass at the beginning of the fourth quarter.

 

At the time, West Virginia was comfortably ahead, 35-19, although it was facing a third and 12 at its own 37. A screw-up there could have given Iowa State a small ray of hope.

 

But Pettaway calmly caught the ball, turned up field and made a 25-yard gainer to the Cyclone 38. A couple of plays later, Gibson caught his second touchdown pass and the rout was on.

 

“There is a timing aspect to that and that play was huge,” admitted Holgorsen. “We scored a couple of plays later. He’s a smart kid, he’s paid attention and he’s gotten a lot of reps. Other than that, I was comfortable with him doing what he’s been able to do throughout the course of the week.”

 

Perhaps Pettaway’s most impressive play was his 4-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter when he slipped through a small crack, kept his legs churning and got into the end zone.

 

Short yardage touchdown runs have not always been a given for the Mountaineers this season.

 

“I thought he did a great job of getting on Eli’s hip and just following him into the gap,” said Seider. “You can see he has a natural bend. He leans forward and his feet never stop. That was the difference in him scoring on that play.”

 

“We had about 10 guys get hurt. We had a lot of our main players that weren’t playing and that makes it challenging, but nobody cares about that,” said Holgorsen. “You find guys that are able to go in there that are coached up, and I thought our guys were.”

 

They were, and West Virginia has a ninth victory to show for it with a chance to get win No. 10 next Saturday against Baylor.

 

Perhaps Pettaway will be needed once again, or, it might be someone else.

 

It’s certainly nice to have some more options now.