MORGANTOWN - With a week off and then facing difficult closing games against Pitt and on the road at Rutgers, West Virginia's football season is far from over.

The problem, though, is that the Mountaineers' major goals for the season are all in the rear-view mirror. There will be no Big East championship or a BCS bowl game, a reality stamped and sealed by Friday night's 24-21 loss at No. 5 Cincinnati.

That could make things difficult for a team that over the years has grown used to playing for such perks right down to the wire.

"We'll find out how tough we are,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said. "We'll just roll up our sleeves and go back to work.''

The Mountaineers (7-3, 3-2 Big East) officially lost any chance they had at the league title with Friday night's loss. No matter what happens in the interim, that will now be decided when Cincinnati plays at Pitt on Dec. 5.

And, truth be told, bowl positioning might not even be much of an issue down the stretch, although with three weeks remaining that could still change. But at least on the surface, it appears that regardless of the outcome of West Virginia's final two games, the Mountaineers' most likely postseason destination is the Jan. 2 Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. That's assuming the Gator Bowl passes on the Big East in favor of its last chance at Notre Dame. But if the Irish slip badly, then the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl (in Jacksonville, Fla.) and the Dec. 26 Meineke Car Care Bowl (Charlotte, N.C.) could come into play.

But that's way out in the future. West Virginia's concern now is using an extra week off before the Nov. 27 Backyard Brawl with Pitt to heal a lot of bruised and battered bodies and to try and get over Friday's loss to the unbeaten Bearcats.

"This is going to be one that sticks with me for a long time. And it's going to stick with our seniors forever,'' Stewart said. "But we have to take it as a learning experience and move on.''

The most significant thing West Virginia can do in the next two weeks is get healthy. Ten games have taken a toll on many key players, including quarterback Jarrett Brown, safety Sidney Glover, linebacker Reed Williams, nose guard Chris Neild and many others.

MORGANTOWN - With a week off and then facing difficult closing games against Pitt and on the road at Rutgers, West Virginia's football season is far from over.

The problem, though, is that the Mountaineers' major goals for the season are all in the rear-view mirror. There will be no Big East championship or a BCS bowl game, a reality stamped and sealed by Friday night's 24-21 loss at No. 5 Cincinnati.

That could make things difficult for a team that over the years has grown used to playing for such perks right down to the wire.

"We'll find out how tough we are,'' West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said. "We'll just roll up our sleeves and go back to work.''

The Mountaineers (7-3, 3-2 Big East) officially lost any chance they had at the league title with Friday night's loss. No matter what happens in the interim, that will now be decided when Cincinnati plays at Pitt on Dec. 5.

And, truth be told, bowl positioning might not even be much of an issue down the stretch, although with three weeks remaining that could still change. But at least on the surface, it appears that regardless of the outcome of West Virginia's final two games, the Mountaineers' most likely postseason destination is the Jan. 2 Papajohns.com Bowl in Birmingham, Ala. That's assuming the Gator Bowl passes on the Big East in favor of its last chance at Notre Dame. But if the Irish slip badly, then the Jan. 1 Gator Bowl (in Jacksonville, Fla.) and the Dec. 26 Meineke Car Care Bowl (Charlotte, N.C.) could come into play.

But that's way out in the future. West Virginia's concern now is using an extra week off before the Nov. 27 Backyard Brawl with Pitt to heal a lot of bruised and battered bodies and to try and get over Friday's loss to the unbeaten Bearcats.

"This is going to be one that sticks with me for a long time. And it's going to stick with our seniors forever,'' Stewart said. "But we have to take it as a learning experience and move on.''

The most significant thing West Virginia can do in the next two weeks is get healthy. Ten games have taken a toll on many key players, including quarterback Jarrett Brown, safety Sidney Glover, linebacker Reed Williams, nose guard Chris Neild and many others.

But perhaps none is more generally beat up than tailback Noel Devine. Stewart pointed to an accumulation of ankle, hip and hamstring injuries to his junior tailback as the reason why, with about eight minutes to play and WVU down 21-14 Friday, Devine was retired for the night. He had carried the ball 25 times for 88 yards.

"He's just getting hammered out there,'' Stewart said. "I keep telling you, when a guy is 5-8 and 175 pounds he can't be carrying the ball 30-35 times. It just doesn't work that way.''

As a result, Devine watched the most intriguing part of the game from the sideline. His exit came midway through a West Virginia drive that died at the UC 24-yard line with about 51/2 minutes to play. It ended when the Mountaineers elected to go for broke on a fourth-and-8 play rather than kick a 41-yard field goal and cut Cincinnati's margin to 21-17.

As it turned out, the Bearcats took the ball and immediately drove for a field goal and a 24-14 lead with 2:08 to play. West Virginia answered with a quick scoring drive capped by Brown's 3-yard pass to Bradley Starks with 39 seconds remaining to make it 24-21.

Had WVU kicked the field goal, the touchdown could have tied the game and eliminated the necessity of an on-side kick, which failed.

"That's probably questionable, but I'll live with that,'' Stewart said of the decision to pass on a field goal.

He also said that if West Virginia had managed to convert that fourth down and eventually score a touchdown, he wanted to go for a 2-point conversion and the lead rather than a kick and a tie.

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