MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Navy and Air Force rank first and third befitting service academies that, contrary to their military proclivities to water and air, prefer their football offensives to be ground-based.

Stuck in between those wishbone-oriented units in the NCAA Division I-A statistics is West Virginia (4-0), which rushes for a second-best 299.75 yards per game while deploying three -- and sometimes four -- wide receivers at a time.

Spread 'em out. Block 'em up. It's the West Virginia way of life for receivers who are asked to crunch far more often than catch.

"Every long run comes from a receiver blocking," said Wes Lyons of Woodland Hills High, a freshman who has barged into the fourth-ranked Mountaineers' receiver rotation -- a camp-long broken finger notwithstanding -- because of his blocking abilities as well. "If you make a great block, you get a 'Knockdown.' That's definitely big."

Bigger than the age-old wideout quantifier known in primitive offenses as a "Reception"?

"Throughout high school, I didn't really get that many passes thrown to me, either," said Lyons, tied for fourth on the team with four catches. "Anything will be more than high school."

"As a receiver ... you would like to get the football," Dorrell Jalloh said. "But you make the best of it. I'm going to go out there and try to knock somebody down, cut somebody down. If you start thinking, 'It's about me,' or you start being selfish, it's going downhill."

Running downhill is the preferred path for West Virginia, which has rushed the football 195 times thus far and thrown it 71. So Mountaineers receivers know the routine, including the nine who have caught passes to date and, more important, have thrown their bodies into opposing defenders.

More of the same will be expected Saturday at Mississippi State (1-4), a sputtering Southeastern Conference team whose forte is stopping the run.

One of those receivers, however, won't join the Mountaineers on that trip to Starkville, Miss. Sophomore Jeremy Bruce of Blackhawk is "undergoing disciplinary action," coach Rich Rodriguez said yesterday. "How long will be determined. He made a mistake," Rodriguez added, without specifying. The Morgantown Dominion Post reported that Bruce was arrested Sunday and charged with DUI. Bruce had three catches for 66 yards and a regular spot in the receiver rotation until now.

"Just plug another guy in there," Rodriguez said. "They're all going to get [time]."

Those receivers might be pressed into pass-catching action starting at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. For as strong as Mississippi State is against the run, yielding just 104 yards rushing per game and 3.06 yards per carry, its defense is porous to the pass, allowing 244 yards passing to rank 103rd of 119 major-college teams.

Just Saturday, LSU's JaMarcus Russell completed 14 consecutive attempts and conjured a career-high 330 yards passing, and the Tigers' first five drives resulted in touchdowns amid a 48-17 Bulldogs loss.

Be it by ground or by air, the Mountaineers' receivers figure to be busy at Scott Field this weekend.

"He's been talking to us about being reliable," Jalloh said of receivers coach Butch Jones, who preaches about blocking and catching to his large group of regulars: starters Brandon Myles, Darius Reynaud and Rayshawn Bolden, followed by Lyons, Jalloh, Bruce (when not being disciplined), Dwayne Thompson, Tito Gonzales and freshman Carmen Connolly of Seton-LaSalle. Added Jalloh about such receiver reliability, "It's from the No. 1 starter to the last guy."

NOTES -- Mississippi State lost one of its best run-stoppers Monday when defensive tackle Deljuan Robinson had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee. Robinson, who ranks 13th in Division I-A with 8¹/₂ tackles for losses, is a 6-foot-3, 287-pound senior. "It definitely makes the job a lot tougher, not having Deljuan," Bulldogs coach Sylvester Croom said. ... Rodriguez said sophomore tailback Ed Collington of Penn Hills, hampered by injuries this fall, has a chance to see his first collegiate action Saturday amid 80-degree temperatures "where you have to play more people."