Jeff Gentner/Associated Press
West Virginia fullback Ryan Clarke crosses into the end zone in a game against Colorado earlier this season. Clarke, along with Tyler Urban, has helped add balance to the Mountaineers offensive attack.
Submit your WVU football question
Thanks much for your participation in the West Virginia football Q&A.
It is your job to ask the questions; my job to answer them -- so keep them rolling in. I will answer them as I get them each day throughout the season and through whatever bowl game the Mountaineers go to, as well as through signing day in February.
You can follow the Mountaineers daily here and at 'Eers to the Ground, a blog devoted to West Virginia football.
Also, take time each week to find your way into my live chat, it is each Thursday at 2 p.m.
Q: What has been the best part of the offense this year?
Mike Flowers, Charleston, W.Va.
DUNLAP: This one is easy -- balance. When Bill Stewart took the job, and he touched on it today in his press conference, there was a thought around the opposition that when you played West Virginia, you could simply stack the box and have success. To some degree, there was truth in such a statement. Now, it has become a pick-your-poison situation, with Jarrett Brown's arm and Noel Devine's legs being the obvious components.
But, to me, some of the most key components have been Tyler Urban and Ryan Clarke -- Urban in the throwing game; Clarke in the run game.
Time and again, Urban has cleared out the middle and allowed Brown lanes, vertically, to throw the football to the speedsters.
In the run game, Clarke's presence has been as a masher and he's taken on linebackers and allowed Devine to get quickly upfield. Even when they go single-back and Clarke is in there by himself, he makes Devine better and here is why: Devine is fresher, his legs and, more important that little body of his, doesn't get beaten up.
Q: Could WVU look past Marshall?
Nick Hutchinson, Irwin
DUNLAP: Not going to happen. At least, that's my general feeling. From talking to Bill Stewart today, he seems to have relayed to his team how important of a game this is. A stumble against the Herd would be a back-breaker, it would be devastating to the program. I think the players understand as much.
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