West Virginia’s party a tad premature

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Put that champagne on ice, Morgantown.

Save it for next year.

CBS… MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Put that champagne on ice, Morgantown.

Save it for next year.

CBS Sports columnist Dennis Dodd referred to Saturday night’s Backyard Brawl, the 100th installment of the rivalry, as a “walkover victory” for West Virginia.

He wrote that the implications for Saturday’s game were so big (How big were they?), that a West Virginia player was running around naked in the team hotel.

Put your clothes back on, brother.

The 2007 West Virginia Mountaineers were better on paper than the 2007 Pitt Panthers; but, as the famous New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs manager Joe McCarthy once said, “Games aren’t played on paper.”

After everything that went wrong, from standout wide receiver Derek Kinder’s blown ACL to promising quarterback Bill Stull’s damaged thumb ligament, a win in the biggest game of the season may have washed away all the sores, all the pain and all the sorrow from what was otherwise a rather dismal season for Pitt.

The Panthers’ bright spot, freshman running back LeSean McCoy, broke the single-season rushing record for a Big East freshman with his eyebrow-raising 148 yards on the ground.

Surely, anyone who watched the Panthers this year wasn’t surprised, but a national audience, witnessing the upset of yet another No.2-ranked team, saw McCoy as one of the finest young players in college football.

But it took more than the shifty, speedy McCoy, whose shake-until-your-momma-calls-the-doctor shimmies sent shivers down West Virginia fans’ spines, to crush the Mountaineers’ title hopes.

Pitt’s defense held Heisman Trophy candidate Patrick White and stud running back Steve Slaton to virtually nothing.

The Panthers made shoestring tackles they hadn’t made all year.

They stuffed the option better than they have since, well, the option was invented.

Nobody saw it coming.

A 28.5-point underdog coming into the game, Pitt didn’t just create more fodder for the Backyard Brawl.

Pitt didn’t just stun its own fans.

Pitt didn’t just change the entire outlook of its program for the immediate future.

No, Pitt shocked the world.

Pitt shattered, destroyed, obliterated West Virginia’s title hopes.

Pitt showcased its defense and its better-than-advertised running back.

Pitt showed America that nothing can be taken for granted.

Pitt ensured the ice industry an extra pickup of cash.

West Virginia can’t let that champagne go to waste, can it? The Mountaineers can enjoy the sour taste of the carbonated alcohol at another BCS game, like the Fiesta, Orange or Sugar Bowl.

It sure won’t taste the same, will it, Morgantown?

The only person walking over anyone on Saturday night was McCoy, and he made West Virginia pay for its costly attitude.