MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- He is, to be politically correct, horizontally challenged. He is possessed of fleet feet and a flashy smile sometimes adorned by a golden grill, just like his buddy of the same size, agility and geography. He is Florida Gulf Coast through every sinew, sunny and warm and gone in a breeze.

And he will be a prime piece of West Virginia's offense this season. Just not the one you're thinking.

"A lot of people don't realize," linebacker J.T. Thomas, a Florida Atlantic Coast guy from Fort Lauderdale, said earlier in the Mountaineers' camp, "Jock Sanders is just as good as Noel Devine. That's what I believe."

He isn't alone, apparently.

"Had a couple NFL guys the other day ask, 'That little [number] 9 isn't ready, is he?' I said, 'Don't you touch him, he's only a sophomore,' " new coach Bill Stewart recounted on the subject of Sanders.

It was his way of launching into a dissertation about the eighth-ranked Mountaineers' spread-offense equation: "It's real simple. Five [Patrick White], 7 [Noel Devine] and 9 must touch the ball. Have to. They have to."

Seven and nine are odd little numbers of the same 5-foot-8 frame, though Sanders is about 10 pounds thicker at 185. Devine is the starting tailback, the star in the making, the ballyhooed recruit with an orphan past.

Sanders is a starting slotback, a backup tailback, a fellow who, despite his diminutive stature, owns a spot on the Mountaineers' "big" offensive alignment. He'll catch bubble screens, he'll catch passes downfield, he'll run reverses, he'll run from the backfield, he'll return kicks. He truly will be everywhere, trying to work in a half-dozen touches or more each game among the double-digit carries awarded White and Devine, his best bud.

"We're brothers," said Sanders, from St. Petersburg, 100 miles north up the white-sand beachfront and across Tampa Bay from Devine's North Fort Myers home.

"Two of a kind," said Devine. "We have a lot of things in common, we just bonded. We've always been the same size. Fast."

While Devine was collecting nearly 7,000 yards and 92 touchdowns and half a million YouTube views in high school, Sanders was rushing for half as much distance and half as many touchdowns before deciding to follow the local legend far north to the same Big East program. While Devine was carrying for 627 yards and a gaudy 8.6 yards per carry and 108 yards on just 13 Fiesta Bowl rushes last season as a freshman, Sanders with far less fanfare was becoming the team's fourth-leading receiver (tying Owen Schmitt with a dozen catches), running for 105 yards total in mop-up duty, returning three kicks to Devine's 22.

Now, they're almost inseparable, off and on the field. Sanders figures to align next to Devine on kickoff returns. Sanders figures to spend considerable time in the same offensive set, if not spelling the star tailback on occasion.

"I think he's as good as there is," running backs/slotbacks coach Chris Beatty said of Sanders. "He's got great ball skills. He makes people miss. He runs great routes. In the backfield, I don't think there's a huge dropoff when he goes in there and Noel goes out."

To Beatty's way of thinking, Sanders is a slippery runner and Devine an "explosive" back who blurs by defenders.

"An elusive back," Sanders called himself.

"Jock is more of a tailback who can run between the tackles, even though he's so small of stature," Beatty said.

Primarily, though, the Mountaineers have fashioned this tailback into a slotback, the better to "get me out in open spaces," Sanders said.

He added of the two Gulf Coast guys, "Every time we get a chance, we're going to do what we were recruited to do. He'll get his share of touches, and I'll get mine."