Insider: WVU can't conceal its naked ambition in title quest

Rodriguez chooses to call Saturday's game a semifinal to get to the finals. The truth is, there haven't been much easier BCS title game qualifiers. Utah had to beat its mortal enemy BYU at home in 2004 to get to the Fiesta Bowl. The Utes did, by 31, but the ramp-up to that game was as much nervousness as anticipation. Ohio State was taken to the gun by Michigan last season before winning by three. Florida had to come from behind to beat Arkansas in the SEC title game.

USC did lose its focus, losing to UCLA on the final day of the season allowing the Gators their chance.

"You don't get to the finals," Rodriguez reiterated, "until you win the semis."

But coming off a 66-21 win over Connecticut that clinched at least a share of the Big East and BCS berth, the Backyard Brawl might as well be the pregame show for the postgame celebration. Right?

"Why are you asking me the question?" said quarterback Patrick White when asked about the team's focus.

Because isn't there a possibility this giddy team could lose its mental grip and start the after-party in their minds right now?

"No," snapped White.

The night of Sept. 28, the nation probably wrote off West Virginia as a contender. It played sloppily in a 21-13 loss to South Florida that vaulted the Bulls into the top 10 and the nation's consciousness. After Louisville and Rutgers last year, the Big East had its next big thing. Meanwhile, the Mountaineers dropped from fifth to 13th.

In the locker room, Rodriguez seized on the obvious: "We can still win the Big East." How hollow those words must have sounded to a team that had national championship aspirations.

"It was still pretty bleak," Isdaner said. "There were still three Big 12 teams ahead of us. We knew some things had to happen."

"I might have thought to myself, 'Obviously, there goes our perfect season and some of our goals,'" linebacker Marc Magro said.

"The way they played us, I didn't know if we were going to be able to (do it)," Rivers said of the Bulls. "I didn't think they were going to lose, honestly."

The season of the upset, they found out, was just beginning. Quarterbacks coach Rod Smith, who had just come over from South Florida, pulled Rivers aside and said, "Those boys got another three losses in them," according to the defensive back.

Seven weeks later it was a reality, as the Bulls dropped three consecutive games from Oct. 18 to Nov. 3.

"Damn, you know your old ballclub," Rivers told Smith.

Week by week, West Virginia worked its way back up until Ohio State's loss to Illinois gave the Mountaineers real hope. They moved from sixth to third in the Nov. 18 BCS.

"It motivates our guys every time they say, 'It's this team's turn or that team's turn,'" Rodriguez said. "We're still thinking, 'We're still there, we're still West Virginia.' My wife, Rita, gets more fired up than I do. ... She's like, 'Why aren't they talking about West Virginia?'"

They are now, but as what? The program isn't quite a traditional national title contender on a par with Ohio State. But it has won at least a share of four of the last five Big East titles.

It isn't exactly a newbie on the scale of Boise State or Hawaii, either. Don Nehlen led the team to a shot at the national championship against Notre Dame in 1988. Two years ago Rodriguez's guys beat Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, a de facto home game for the Dawgs played in Atlanta.

Recently, the Mountaineers tended to tense up in big games that would have helped establish them as a national power. Tailback Steve Slaton had a combined six fumbles in do-or-die games against Louisville last season and South Florida this season.

"A national power means that you're going to compete, you're winning your conference, you're always at least contending for your conference and there's always a preseason chance you're going to contend for the national championship," Magro said.

By that definition the Mountaineers are just about there. We won't find out Saturday, of course. It's going to be too easy to get to the Big Easy. The answer will begin to take shape in New Orleans and in the years to follow. Until then, happenings like Saturday mean clothing is still optional for the Mountaineers.

"I don't blame them," Rodriguez said.