LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Even when it wins games handily, this West Virginia football team continues to be as perplexing as almost any in the school's history.

Is it any wonder, then, that at halftime of the Mountaineers' 35-21 win over Louisville Saturday, first-year coach Bill Stewart said he was tempted to start bawling?

Consider that to that point West Virginia had rushing plays of 79 and 66 yards and a pass that went for 52. The Mountaineers had run for 215 yards and had averaged a whisker under 10 yards per offensive snap. Pat White had 106 rushing yards, Noel Devine another 85. West Virginia twice gained first downs virtually in the shadow of the Louisville goal line, and on two other possessions the Mountaineers had first downs at or near midfield.

And yet they scored on none of those four possessions, and at the break were tied with the Cardinals 7-7.

"I was so frustrated at the half ... I just wanted to cry,'' Stewart said. "Of course, I can't do that in front of these guys.''

But as has happened so many times this season, the second half belonged to West Virginia, and this time the Mountaineers made all the good things they did count.

Behind White's 200 rushing yards and two touchdown passes, along with another 154 yards from Devine, West Virginia rolled over the Cardinals in front of a chilly crowd of 34,796 at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Along the way, White broke a pair a rather extraordinary records, surpassing Missouri's Brad Smith as the NCAA's all-time quarterback rushing leader and tying and then moving past Syracuse's Donovan McNabb on the list of touchdowns responsible for in the Big East with his 97th and 98th.

Even more significantly, the Mountaineers (7-3, 4-1 Big East) remained in the hunt for at least a share of the Big East championship with games remaining against Pitt and South Florida, although their hopes for continuing to play for a BCS bowl berth took a major hit when Cincinnati beat Pitt 28-21 Saturday night.

Because of that, Cincinnati needs only to beat Syracuse at home next week to wrap up the league's automatic BCS berth.

The Mountaineers could have put Louisville away much earlier but, as has been their pattern, they self-destructed in the first half, again primarily because of an inability to convert short-yardage situations.

First, WVU failed to take advantage of White's 52-yard pass to Alric Arnett to the U of L 11-yard line when three running plays from there netted just 7 yards and Pat McAfee pulled a chip-shot, 21-yard field goal attempt.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Even when it wins games handily, this West Virginia football team continues to be as perplexing as almost any in the school's history.

Is it any wonder, then, that at halftime of the Mountaineers' 35-21 win over Louisville Saturday, first-year coach Bill Stewart said he was tempted to start bawling?

Consider that to that point West Virginia had rushing plays of 79 and 66 yards and a pass that went for 52. The Mountaineers had run for 215 yards and had averaged a whisker under 10 yards per offensive snap. Pat White had 106 rushing yards, Noel Devine another 85. West Virginia twice gained first downs virtually in the shadow of the Louisville goal line, and on two other possessions the Mountaineers had first downs at or near midfield.

And yet they scored on none of those four possessions, and at the break were tied with the Cardinals 7-7.

"I was so frustrated at the half ... I just wanted to cry,'' Stewart said. "Of course, I can't do that in front of these guys.''

But as has happened so many times this season, the second half belonged to West Virginia, and this time the Mountaineers made all the good things they did count.

Behind White's 200 rushing yards and two touchdown passes, along with another 154 yards from Devine, West Virginia rolled over the Cardinals in front of a chilly crowd of 34,796 at Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Along the way, White broke a pair a rather extraordinary records, surpassing Missouri's Brad Smith as the NCAA's all-time quarterback rushing leader and tying and then moving past Syracuse's Donovan McNabb on the list of touchdowns responsible for in the Big East with his 97th and 98th.

Even more significantly, the Mountaineers (7-3, 4-1 Big East) remained in the hunt for at least a share of the Big East championship with games remaining against Pitt and South Florida, although their hopes for continuing to play for a BCS bowl berth took a major hit when Cincinnati beat Pitt 28-21 Saturday night.

Because of that, Cincinnati needs only to beat Syracuse at home next week to wrap up the league's automatic BCS berth.

The Mountaineers could have put Louisville away much earlier but, as has been their pattern, they self-destructed in the first half, again primarily because of an inability to convert short-yardage situations.

First, WVU failed to take advantage of White's 52-yard pass to Alric Arnett to the U of L 11-yard line when three running plays from there netted just 7 yards and Pat McAfee pulled a chip-shot, 21-yard field goal attempt.

Then, one series later, Devine broke off a 79-yard run - breaking by 3 yards his own record for the longest non-scoring rush in school history - to the Louisville 6. A defensive holding penalty even made it first-and-goal at the 3, but on third- and fourth-down plays from inside the 1, Jarrett Brown was stopped on a quarterback sneak and Devine slipped and fell on a play that surely would have resulted in a score.

Both plays were subject to instant-replay review, and despite the appearance that Brown made it across the goal line on his carry, there was no clear angle to support it. Devine's carry - the last play of the first half - was originally ruled a touchdown but was overturned on replay because it was obvious his knee touched when he slipped before he lunged the ball to the goal line.

The result was that 7-all tie at the break, but to the Mountaineers' credit they didn't let the bad breaks haunt them.

"The [fourth-down play] couldn't have been a better call. He could have walked in,'' Stewart said. "That was tough, but what we didn't do was lay down. We didn't start feeling sorry for ourselves. Our theme all week was to just come down here and take care of business, and that's what we had to do.''

And that's what the Mountaineers did. West Virginia scored touchdowns on four of its first five possessions of the second half, two of them set up by tag-team turnovers. First Ellis Lankster pulled the ball from Chris Vaughn after a short reception and Julian Miller recovered the fumble at the Louisville 43, then Sidney Glover tipped a Hunter Cantwell pass on a blitz and linebacker Anthony Leonard plucked it out of the air and returned it 36 yards to the U of L 7.

And then it was just a matter of someone, usually White, making the plays to capitalize. Fortunately, they did so before getting into short-yardage situations.

White threw touchdown passes of 21 yards to Dorrell Jalloh - on a third-and-10, no less - and 25 yards to Jock Sanders. Those were sandwiched around White's scoring runs of 43 and 7 yards, the longer one sprung by blocks from Arnett and Sanders and the shorter one on a scramble up the middle. Combined with his 66-yard scoring run in the first half, that gave White a hand in all five scores.

All in all, it was the kind of offensive performance that has been expected of West Virginia all season - 376 yards rushing, 498 total. And despite surrendering its first two second-half touchdowns in more than a month, the defense was again stifling when it mattered most, forcing five turnovers.

All of which leaves Stewart feeling pretty good about his team heading into the final two games of the season.

"We're good. Are we great? No,'' Stewart said. "But we still have a chance to finish as a very good team.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.