Photo by BlueGoldNews.com WVU quarterback Nicco Marchiol hands the ball off to running back Jahiem White during a recent fall practice.

MORGANTOWN — West Virginia is seven practices in and wrapped up its second practice in full pads Thursday. Since the team was in full pads, Rich Rodriguez wanted to do more scrimmaging, but he couldn’t because of his lack of running backs.

“I wanted to do a little bit more scrimmaging today,” Rodriguez said. “We are down to just a couple of running backs practicing. I even put the slot receivers back there a little bit. That has something to do with it.”

The other day, Rodriguez said there were four running backs practicing: last year’s leading rusher Jahiem White, junior Kannon Katzer, sophomore Clay Ash and redshirt freshman Diore Hubbard. Thursday, he said there are now were just two.

“They’re just banged up,” Rodriguez said. “Jahiem is practicing now, and Hubbard. Andre Devine is a late addition off the waiver wire… We just have two. Diore Hubbard and Jahiem, the two running backs at practice.”

This is the first time Rodriguez or WVU’s mentioned Andre Devine, although there was some speculation. Devine was at Jacksonville State in 2024, playing under Rodriguez. He didn’t see much playing time his first year, but he was a three-star out of high school. Devine’s dad was former WVU star Noel Devine, who is now on staff as an offensive analyst and assistant running backs coach, leading to the rumors his son would join the team. He was a five-star out of high school and had 5,761 all-purpose yards at WVU.

Rodriguez hopes Andre Devine can join the team soon. Luckily, Rodriguez doesn’t think the offense is too complicated, so it shouldn’t be too hard to pick up quickly.

“There might be one or two we add or whatever, you’re going to kind of force feed them a little bit of what they can and can’t do,” Rodriguez said. “Kind of go from there.”

The other two running backs, Rodriguez named a couple of days ago, who were practicing, Ash and Katzer, are “banged up,” according to Rodriguez.

Then, there are the running backs who are waiting for waivers from the NCAA. SMU and Miami transfer Jaylan Knighton and Northern Iowa transfer Tye Edwards are both waiting to practice. Since they are waiting for waivers, they’re not allowed to practice or even sit in meetings. Some other players are waiting for waivers, too, most notably pass rusher Jimmori Robinson. All the players on waivers have to practice by themselves.

Only having two healthy and eligible running backs is a big issue, especially in a Rodriguez-led offense. Rodriguez ran the ball 646 times and had five different backs carry the ball at Jacksonville State last year, so it’ll be a lot of wear and tear on just two backs, and is probably why slot receivers are starting to play there.

Rodriguez is already feeling the repercussions of not having enough running backs and doesn’t know how much scrimmaging he can do on Saturday in the stadium, which will include officials.

Like Rodriguez said when talking about how his players aren’t tough enough, there are still a lot of players who haven’t picked transfer destinations yet, around 4,000. Rodriguez and his recruiting staff are actively looking to add some depth to help the running back situation.

“We’re actively looking in the portal,” Rodriguez said.