MORGANTOWN - Dave Wannstedt figures it doesn't take a genius to figure out what has to be done to put West Virginia's offense in neutral: Stop Pat White.

Figuring out how to do that? Well, that takes some planning and execution.

In the past two years, Wannstedt and Pitt have been on both sides of the fence as far as successfully containing West Virginia's quarterback. Two years ago at Heinz Field, the Panthers tried to make White beat them by throwing the ball. He did, not only tossing a couple of touchdown passes to Steve Slaton, but running for 220 yards, as well. West Virginia overcame a 27-24 halftime deficit and won 45-27.

Last year, Pitt changed gears and simply decided to concentrate on tackling White - as well as Slaton and Noel Devine - and did just that. White passed for only 50 yards, ran for just 41 and the Mountaineers had a mere 183 yards of total offense in a 13-9 loss.

Heading into Friday's Backyard Brawl, Wannstedt was hoping against hope that perhaps he was just living a bad dream and White wouldn't be around for his fourth crack at the Panthers. No such luck.

"Unfortunately he's still on the roster,'' Wannstedt said. "That's the one name I was looking for that I was hoping was gone.''

Obviously, Pitt's game plan this season will more closely resemble last year's, rather than the first two times the Panthers faced White. As a freshman he ran for 220 yards and as a sophomore there was another 220 rushing yards and 204 through the air.

"One of the best things we did last year defensively against them was that we tackled in the open field. We didn't give them the 40- or 50-yard runs,'' Wannstedt said. "It's going to have to be the same this year. Pat White, I believe, is the best spread quarterback in the country without a doubt.''

Wannstedt certainly learned that the first two times he faced White. After giving up those 220 rushing yards to the freshman, the following year Pitt decided that wouldn't happen again.

"We went in with the mentality that we were going to do a couple things defensively. We were not going to let him run the ball and we were going to make him beat us throwing,'' Wannstedt said. "And he did. He made three of the best throws that we had seen all year long, from an accuracy standpoint, of any quarterback we faced. He will throw the ball if you give him the chance.''

White will throw it now, too. With 125 completions in 191 attempts and 1,226 yards this season, he is on track to set career highs in all three categories. White has already surpassed his career high with 17 touchdown passes and has thrown only four interceptions. Although the Mountaineers rank 109th out of 119 teams in the country in passing yards, White is second in the Big East and No. 23 in the country in passing efficiency, thanks mainly to a 65-percent completion rate and his better than 4-1 TD-to-interception rate. In fact, White is currently the school's all-time leader in passing efficiency.

Of course, his strong suit is still running the football, a fact that was reiterated a week ago when he ran for 200 yards against Louisville and became the NCAA's all-time leader in career rushing yards by a quarterback.

He wasn't doing as much of that earlier in the season, but now he seems as dangerous running the ball as ever.

"Most people talk about what makes him different. He can make you miss and he can outrun you,'' Wannstedt said. "He's kind of made a little bit of a transition back to the quarterback run game that they were doing earlier in the year. He's going to have the football in his hands come Friday and we're going to have to deal with him. There's no question about that.''

Then again, the wild card here is Pitt's secondary, which has been awful at times this season. The Panthers rank about in the middle of the pack in pass defense, both nationally and in the Big East, but Cincinnati threw for three touchdowns last week in a 28-21 win over Pitt and only Syracuse in the league has given up more than the 19 scoring passes the Panthers have allowed. Pitt has allowed teams to complete almost 60 percent of their passes and have picked off just seven against those 19 TDs allowed.

But can West Virginia exploit that?

"The most important thing is that we cover these guys down field and don't give them any big pass plays,'' Wannstedt said. "The secondary's job is to cover first, run support second.''

That, of course, makes White even more dangerous as a runner if the secondary is 20 yards off the ball. Cincinnati quarterback Tony Pike actually burned Pitt several times last week with designed draws and scrambles when the Panthers secondary was off the ball.

"He tucked the football and ran more than any game this year,'' Wannstedt said. "Does Pat White do that more than Pike? Not necessarily. But if it's there he's going to take it. We learned this lesson two years ago.''

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