Win vs. Louisville: The complete rehash

By Colin Dunlap | 10:11 p.m. Saturday

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Maybe it is me.

Maybe I am crazy.

Maybe I am too positive when it comes to football teams.

Maybe I see water filling half the glass.

Or, maybe I should have a more negative feeling and I am totally in the wrong -- but, honestly, I don't think that's the case at all.

I am talking about West Virginia's 17-9 victory against Louisville. To me, you should never be unhappy with a win, in the conference. Did West Virginia play its best game? No. Far from it.

But the Mountaineers are 7-2, they have a three-game season in front of them, they still control their own destiny, and in this new "four-game season" after the USF loss, West Virginia won Round 1.

I side with Bill Stewart on this one, as I don't understand when a conference win, in Division I college football, became a bad thing.

Does West Virginia need to get better, on a short week, if it wants to beat Cincinnati? Yes, surely.

But, let me ask you this: What was West Virginia's objective against Louisville? I will answer that question -- it was to win.

Did the Mountaineers do that? I will answer that one for you, too -- Yes.

It is just tough for me to fathom where you can look at the situation, in its entirety, and see a negative. Sure, there are negative components to things (the offense didn't move the ball, the quarterback play wasn't great, the receivers played very so-so) but to flip it the other way, it yields this: West Virginia played far from its best game, and still won a conference clash.

I don't know. Again, it is probably me, I am probably crazy and just being too positive, but something just seems off-kilter when a win is seen as a bad thing.

Overall grade I give West Virginia in the win over Louisville: C-

          > BILL STEWART PRESS CONFERENCE VIDEO

Some audio:

First, and maybe the most important audio, this is athletic trainer Dave Kerns. He goes over ALL the injuries, step by step:

Jock Sanders speaks about his (temporary) move to tailback:

QB Jarrett Brown speaks about the contest:

Safety Robert Sands says this team needs to have more fun, just go out and "play football like little kids":

          > FULL BOX SCORE

Some quick notes about the win:

• Jarrett Brown's interception in the first quarter was WVU's first interception against Louisville since Major Harris threw an interception against the Cardinals in 1989. WVU had gone 226 passing attempts without throwing an interception against the Cardinals. Those two interceptions are the only two against Louisville in the 11-game series.

• Noel Devine went over 1,000 yards rushing for the second-consecutive year. Last year, Devine finished with 1,289 rushing yards on 206 carries.

• Devine became the fifth Mountaineer in school history to have 4,000 career all-purpose running yards. Devine entered the game in sixth place and passed Arthur Owens for fifth place. Avon Cobourne is WVU's all-time leader in career all-purpose running yards with 5,623.

• Julian Miller's three sacks gave him a team leading 8 ½.