Believe it or not — and by now, you’re probably more inclined to believe it than not — but West Virginia is No. 7 in the Big East in rushing.

There are eight Big East teams.

There are two fairly obvious aspects involved. For one, WVU has Eu Smith and really likes to pass the ball to a list of receivers. Secondly, Noel Devine’s big toe is not a little problem and he is, according to Coach Bill Stewart, “not as quick as he was before he got hurt.”

Put together, the Mountaineers are averaging 149 yards per game on the ground and Devine has just four runs of 20 yards or more — after totaling 34 in 2007-09. Devine averages one run of at least 20 yards every 16.5 carries in his career … but only one every 25.9 attempts this season. Since 2001, WVU has five games with fewer than 100 net yards rushing. Two are this season — LSU and USF.

“I always sleep pretty well the night before a game because the hay is in the barn,” Stewart said. “The night after the game is when I don’t sleep. I didn’t sleep very well Friday. I came in Saturday morning and went through every play on offense and looked at every player on every play. Took me some time.

“While I was very pleased with the way we called the game and pleased we got the win over what is probably the second-fastest team – or as fast as any team we’ll play, that being LSU and USF – they just made open-field tackles.

“They got us by the shoestring here. They hit us in the mouth there. They made tackles and played fast. South Florida is a good football team. It is what it is.”

The Mountaineers could have stuck with what worked against the Bulls and leaned on the I-formation and Ryan Clarke, but they were also interested in getting Devine untracked in the fourth quarter. WVU trusts Devine’s carry-to-breakaway ratio and the offense’s history of success running the ball will come around.

“Small plays become pretty good plays and pretty good plays become big plays. That’s what I’m thinking right now. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but that’s what I’m thinking and I’m going to stick with that.”