The offensive exodus continues at West Virginia. First, spread-offense Dali Lama Rich Rodriguez and his staff trundled off to Michigan. Then fullback Owen Schmitt completed his eligibility. Next, receiver Darius Reynaud declared last week he was opting for the NFL.

Yesterday, the Mountaineers officially lost their most decorated tailback in school history when Steve Slaton announced that he has decided to skip his senior season and enter April's draft as well.

And they also lost their leading candidate for offensive coordinator yesterday when Charlie Taafe stated he was staying in the Canadian Football League.

The exodus may end there, though. Outside of unforeseen injuries or academic circumstances, Slaton marked the final possible departure from a vaunted Mountaineers offense that still returns eight of 11 starters next season. Yet the turnover rate this past month at West Virginia apparently affected a tailback who, before the season, announced that he wouldn't leave early unless the team won a national championship.

The change in coaching staff greatly influenced Slaton's decision, his father told their hometown Philadelphia Daily News, which first published the news yesterday.

Carl Slaton of Levittown, where his son attended and starred at Conwell-Egan High School in the Philadelphia Catholic League, told the newspaper: "If he went back, he would have to learn a new system, and the coaches coming in now, they are looking toward the future."

In the regular-season finale upset loss to Pitt, he carried nine times total -- the fewest of his starting career -- and only twice in the second half.

His father told the Daily News, "[Rodriguez] just took everything away from Steven."

Slaton got injured on the second series of West Virginia's Fiesta Bowl upset, in which freshman Noel Devine completed a 627-yard season with 108 yards rushing and two touchdown runs. If Slaton returned to the Mountaineers for 2008, under an offensive coordinator still to be named -- Taafe announced in a statement on the team's Web site yesterday afternoon that he was staying with the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats -- this 5-foot-11, 190-pound tailback likely would share time with Devine, perhaps often in the same backfield.

Slaton informed new West Virginia head coach Bill Stewart and other holdover members of the staff yesterday. Slaton also spoke to his former offensive coordinator and running backs coach, Calvin Magee, one of the nine Mountaineers assistants who followed Rodriguez to Michigan.

"That's good for him," Magee said yesterday of Slaton's choice to enter the draft. "I'm very supportive of him.

"If that's what he and his family decide to do, I think he'll be good. He's going to have a great career."

Slaton rushed for 1,128 yards and 17 touchdowns as a freshman, 1,744 yards and 16 touchdowns as a sophomore, and 1,051 yards and 17 touchdowns this past season. He leaves as the program's all-time leading touchdown rusher (50), its second-leading 100-yard rusher (21 times) and its third-leading career rusher (3,923 yards). His sophomore year output also is WVU's single-season high.

"I feel very good about my chances to do well in the NFL," Slaton, who plans to train in Scottsdale, Ariz., said in a statement released last night by Mountaineers officials. "I am as versatile a running back as there is in the draft. There are a lot of running backs going out early, but I believe I have the speed and the ability to get drafted higher than the level where I am projected."

The group of junior running backs entering the draft already was deep and impressive: Texas' Jamaal Charles, Illinois' Rashard Mendenhall, Oregon's Jonathan Stewart, Central Florida's Kevin Smith, Clemson's James Davis and Rutgers' Ray Rice. Also, Arkansas' Darren McFadden reportedly may still jump to the NFL as well.