If you were one of the fewer than 60,000 people who watched Saturday’s game from Mountaineer Field — that’s twice this year after it happened in five of the final six home games last year — and one of the few who watched on ESPN360.com you saw a peculiar offensive formation.

It is the Pistol and it’s the next step in WVU’s quest to be multiple and prevent opposing defenses from sniffing out plays based on personnel and formations.

Did it work? Eh, perhaps. Nine plays — eight runs (five by design) and a pass — were good for 42 yards. The success would be better graded by looking beyond that. Jarrett Brown wasn’t sacked and the offense had just three negative yardage plays … and one was that goofy sweaty-hands fumble by Brown in the fourth quarter.

So, in short, a defense that had a clue what to do and when to do it against WVU in the past was left a little clueless by WVU’s designed deception.

“The plays and the blocking schemes don’t change,” WVU offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Jeff Mullen said. “The purpose for it is it can be hard to throw under center because we’re predominantly more of a shotgun throwing team, and you don’t always want to be under center just to run it. And sometimes it helps Noel to be in the (I-formation). This is the best of both worlds for him.”

When the Mountaineers practiced it last week, Stewart went into the defensive backfield to observe. He couldn’t see his 5-foot-7 tailback behind his 6-4 quarterback.

“I said, ‘I like that,'” Stewart said. “I thought we had some nice plays and were very close on a couple others. It wasn’t an all-tell answer and nothing is, but we’re a more multiple offense now and it’s just another tool in our tool box.”