MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- East Carolina's Dwayne Harris played a little quarterback in three of the first six games last season, but threw just one pass. He was instead a guy who played receiver and running back and sometimes sneaked into the backfield to take a snap and run around a corner or through the middle.

It was good coaching, he thought, and the best way for his coach, Skip Holtz, to get his best players on the field. As a redshirt freshman, Harris was honored to be in that group, but as a player recruited as a quarterback, he wanted to convince people he could play his original position.

Good coaching, though, can sometimes exist in unlikely moments.

Holtz was standing with his quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator, Todd Fitch, on the field prior to the seventh game against UTEP when something caught his eye. 

"I was throwing 80-yard passes," Harris said. "I saw them look at each other like, 'I didn't know he could do that.'"

They became believers on the first play of the second half.

"We ran a reverse-pass and I threw an 80-yard touchdown pass," Harris said. "So, yeah, I can throw."

He can run and catch, too. In addition to the touchdown pass in the 45-42 victory, he had 66 rushing yards, 33 receiving yards, 31 kickoff return yards and 46 punt return yards.

He's been used similarly ever since and that figures to continue in Saturday's 4:30 p.m. ESPN game against No. 8 West Virginia at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.

"Once he came onto the scene, we started to realize what a special talent he was," Holtz said. "When things go live and you have to tackle him, he's difficult to bring down. We can put him at receiver, we can play him at quarterback, we'll put him in the backfield and we'll put him deep to return kicks and punts. We have a number of different ways to use him because he's such a good athlete. We have to try to get the ball under his arm."

The 6-foot, 200-pound sophomore from Stone Mountain, Ga., finished with 197 rushing yards, 246 receiving yards, 250 punt return yards and 89 kickoff return yards last season and is now even more involved as a starting receiver, the top kick and punt returner and a frequent part of ECU's two-man backfield.

Holtz said he'd like to find a way to get Harris the ball 20 times per game, but that he must avoid overindulging in Harris' talents.

"You have to be careful, and I tell the team this all the time, because I don't think schemes are going to win a football game," Holtz said. "I don't think we're going to out-scheme West Virginia and come up with these great offensive and defensive plans to beat them. I do think we can lose to them if we complicate things too much and think too much about doing too many things."

Nevertheless, Harris has WVU's attention. In last season's game in Morgantown, Harris ran twice for nine yards and caught two passes for eight yards, but also threw the only pass to precede his touchdown against UTEP. Against Virginia Tech last week he ran three times for 32 yards, caught four passes for 68 yards and returned two kicks for 42 yards. He didn't line up at quarterback, but said it's still part of the team's plans and the various different ways ECU can use him in any game.

"Sometimes it's between one and 10, sometimes it's between one and 20," he said. "It just depends on the opponent that week."

The Mountaineers will be careful to follow his every move, but also careful not to follow too closely. Harris can be as much of a decoy as he can be a difference.

"They do what they can to get him the ball because he's a big-time threat out there," WVU cornerbacks coach David Lockwood said. "That's the luxury of their offense, kind of like ours, where if you key too much on him, they have other guys capable or hurting you elsewhere."