Photo by Benjamin Powell/The Dominion Post WVU running back Darius Morant bursts through the pads in spring practice.

MORGANTOWN — One of the lasting images to come from West Virginia football’s 4-8 season and Rich Rodriguez’s return was after the Arizona State game, where he showed a foot with his hands, saying they needed this much and couldn’t get it.

Being physical and getting that extra couple of feet up front was one of the bigger issues last season. The offensive line wasn’t big and strong enough to get the push up front, and at that point of the season, Rodriguez converted a defensive player, Curtis Jones, into a power back because WVU didn’t have one available.

Rodriguez immediately tried to fix that through the high school recruiting class and added a lot of big linemen, including 4-star Kevin Brown, who is 6-foot-6. WVU also picked up some big, experienced linemen in the transfer portal, too.

WVU really lacked a power back last year. So, Rodriguez picked up some bigger, stronger running backs to help push forward to prevent having to convert a defensive player into a running back in the middle of the season.

WVU’s most recent practice, No. 12, was open to the media, and a lot of attention was drawn to a mystery running back, who wasn’t on the bright orange sheet handed out, No. 34 Darius Morant.

Morant transferred from Temple, kind of under the radar, and fits the description of a bigger back at 6-foot, 215 pounds.

“We wanted a bigger guy and he was out there,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a physical guy, and he’s still learning what we’re doing. He’s shown some glimpses of doing some good stuff out there.”

Morant didn’t play in his first two seasons for the Owls. He rushed for 579 yards and four touchdowns at prep school.

Morant is still learning the offense, as Rodriguez said, and WVU had some power backs already on the roster. The biggest back in the room is true freshman and former 4-star Amari Latimer, who really stood out during the open practice.

Latimer is 6-foot, like Morant, but he’s a whopping 228 pounds. He’s a unit. Rodriguez plans to use him as a big physical back.

“He’s a physical guy,” Rodriguez said. “He’s still learning. You can tell the decisiveness that anybody, whether that’s a running back or receiver or quarterback, the decisiveness that they have when they truly understand what we’re doing. Amari is a sharp guy. Football is important to him. He’s got a lot of skills. I like the progress he’s making.”

WVU has a new position on the roster, hoping to pick up that extra foot. The Mountaineers acquired Arizona transfer fullback Kayden Luke this offseason. WVU didn’t have a fullback last year.

Luke could be a lead blocker or given the football in a short-yardage situation. He’s a bit short at 5-foot-11, but Luke is a whopping 249 pounds. Luke has been working primarily with the tight ends and hasn’t received any carries this spring.

“We probably need to get him some short yardage,” Rodriguez said. “I thought I mentioned it, and we didn’t do it today. Mark that down, Raquel. We got to get Kayden some running back reps because he can do that a little bit. We need to do that because we don’t have a bunch of big backs.”

It won’t just be on the running backs and linemen. Making sure Rodriguez doesn’t throw his hands up after the game will take a team effort, including the quarterbacks.

After that loss to the Sun Devils, it’s been what the offseason was focused on and is a major part of this spring.

“I still think it’s a little bit of a work in progress, too,” Rodriguez said. “It starts up front, coming off the ball. We are making progress with that. It starts with the physicality of the running backs, which we have a couple of guys that are running pretty hard downhill. The quarterback making good decisions as well. Obviously, going to continue to be a point of emphasis for us.”