CINCINNATI - Just so everyone is clear on this, the Cincinnati football team that plays host to West Virginia tonight is not invincible.

It has merely seemed that way based on the way the Bearcats have performed during most of the season.

That's how teams get to be 9-0 overall, ranked fifth in the nation and unbeaten through five games of the Big East season.

In truth, this is the most impressive start by a Big East team since Miami went 12-0 in 2002 before losing to Ohio State in two overtimes in the national championship game. West Virginia never had an unbeaten start like this, even in its best years losing to Virginia Tech (2005, fifth game) or Louisville (2006, eighth game) or South Florida (2007, fourth game). The only other team to come close was that 2006 Louisville team, which was 8-0 after beating WVU in a showdown of unbeatens, only to lose the next week at Rutgers.

"They're clicking and hitting. They're the media darling. They're an assaulting offense,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said at the beginning of the week. "I don't know. We'll probably be 20- to 30-point underdogs.''

CINCINNATI - Just so everyone is clear on this, the Cincinnati football team that plays host to West Virginia tonight is not invincible.

It has merely seemed that way based on the way the Bearcats have performed during most of the season.

That's how teams get to be 9-0 overall, ranked fifth in the nation and unbeaten through five games of the Big East season.

In truth, this is the most impressive start by a Big East team since Miami went 12-0 in 2002 before losing to Ohio State in two overtimes in the national championship game. West Virginia never had an unbeaten start like this, even in its best years losing to Virginia Tech (2005, fifth game) or Louisville (2006, eighth game) or South Florida (2007, fourth game). The only other team to come close was that 2006 Louisville team, which was 8-0 after beating WVU in a showdown of unbeatens, only to lose the next week at Rutgers.

"They're clicking and hitting. They're the media darling. They're an assaulting offense,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said at the beginning of the week. "I don't know. We'll probably be 20- to 30-point underdogs.''

Well, truth is the Mountaineers (7-2, 3-1 Big East), No. 25 in the latest BCS ratings, are "just'' nine-point underdogs. But it's only the second time in more than three years that West Virginia has not been favored in a regular-season game.

Still, back to the not-invincible part. Fresno State absolutely dominated the ball (time of possession was nearly 44 minutes to 16), had scoring drives that lasted 11, 12, 17 and 10 plays and lost by only a touchdown to the Bearcats. Connecticut lined up in the second half and ran the ball straight at Cincinnati and, after trailing 37-17 late in the third quarter, had a chance to tie the game at 40 with a two-point conversion before losing 47-45.

And both games were at ancient and tiny (35,000 capacity) Nippert Stadium, the site of tonight's 8 p.m. game (ESPN2) and where one would imagine the Bearcats are least vulnerable.

"If we're not at home, with our crowd,'' Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly said of last week's UConn experience, "we probably don't win that football game.''

Can West Virginia, though, do to the Bearcats what those teams did - control the football and keep UC's offense off the field and out of rhythm? Perhaps, but if the Mountaineers do that it probably won't be with power football, but rather by mixing and matching the various elements of their offense. That's not something WVU has been good at for more than a month, though.

"Connecticut got behind those 330-pound offensive linemen and ran it right down their throats,'' WVU offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen said. "I don't know that we can do that, but we can still control the ball.''

It would behoove the Mountaineers to do just that because this week Cincinnati is, for the first time, equipped with maybe the two best quarterbacks in the Big East. Tony Pike, the starter at the beginning of the season, is expected to play some tonight for the first time in a month and Zach Collaros, who became a star in his absence, will be the starter.

"Both those guys can throw it. One [Collaros] runs better and the other is more experienced,'' Stewart said. "They bring different intangibles to the plate. We just have to go out there and contain what their scheme is. And that's very, very difficult because no one's been able to do that. No one they've played has been able to contain them back to, I guess, Virginia Tech [in last January's Orange Bowl]. That's the last team that even made a decent showing against them.''

West Virginia's assignment tonight, then, is to become the first. And the Mountaineers' Big East championship and BCS bowl berths hang squarely in the balance. Wins in the last three games of the season - Pitt and Rutgers remain after tonight - will give WVU both of those perks. A loss in any of the three makes that mathematically impossible.

Reach Dave Hickman at 304-348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.