Chad Scott Adjusting to Life as Offensive Coordinator

The longtime running backs coach enters his first season as the OC in Morgantown.

West Virginia's offense will be under the direction of a first-time offensive coordinator in 2023 as running backs coach Chad Scott takes over for Graham Harrell, who left for the same position at Purdue.

Scott has coached alongside Neal Brown for years including stops at Troy (2007-09), Texas Tech (2010-12), and Kentucky (2013-14) before reuniting in Morgantown in 2019. For the majority of Scott's coaching career, he has worked with running backs. He has one year of experience coaching tight ends but aside from that, he's lived in the running back room. 

Last year, WVU had three different players rush for over 100 yards in a game; Tony Mathis Jr., C.J. Donaldson, and Jaylen Anderson. Justin Johnson Jr. didn't eclipse that mark, but he did rush for 430 yards and three scores on the season. It didn't matter who the Mountaineers handed the ball off to in 2022. They found success on the ground and relied on it heavily down the stretch.

Moving from running backs coach to offensive coordinator is quite the jump and one that Scott is still working through.

"It is a big adjustment. I'm used to having tunnel vision with those running backs. It's just being able to see the whole picture and see what's going on," Scott said. "Calling plays is a big deal but one of the most important parts of it is just the organization of it. Just all the ideas put forward to actually put in a script to actually run the plays. So the organization behind it and all the ideas put forth to actually put the plan together to run the plays has been the biggest adjustment thus far."

Aside from overseeing the entire offense, the one thing Scott is having a hard time with in his transition is not being on the field. He would much rather be down on the sideline with the players than up in the box just calling plays.

"I've always had the ability to connect with all the guys. Every position. Me being able to impact those guys on and off the football field is huge for me. And I don't know if that would be good for me to up there. It felt kind of weird today. One of the players came to me today and said, 'Coach, Jaylen [Anderson] broke that run and I'm used to running next to him. That was kind of weird that I didn't see you down there with him.' That's something I got to work through this spring. You ask me right now, I don't want to up. But we'll see."

Obviously, he and the coaching staff will have a big decision to make at quarterback, but returning four backs and an entire offensive line will help Scott out in his first year running the offense.

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