MORGANTOWN - Naturally when you think 2-minute offense in football, you think line up, get set, and throw it.

Not at West Virginia University.

''Sometimes you get booed for not throwing in a 2-minute drill,'' WVU coach Bill Stewart said. ''How many times have you seen Mountaineer football in most recent years, particularly this year and last, run the ball with 2 minutes or a minute to go and everyone thinks you should be in 2-minute offense and it goes to the house?

''It's pretty special.''

Stewart, naturally, was speaking of Noel Devine's game-winning, 56-yard touchdown run that took place inside of 2 minutes remaining Saturday against the UConn Huskies.

If anything, this is the kind of game that showed just how much different actual knowledge is for coaches who pour over hours of film and learn the tendencies of foes vs. what fans think they're seeing on the field.

Devine was completely bottled up in the first half. He went nowhere. He had seven yards on 10 carries at halftime, where West Virginia trailed, 17-14.

It looked like it wasn't his day.

But there was a reason.

Stewart said he'd faced UConn coach Randy Edsall's teams for 11 years, watched them defend more than 400 snaps, and seen them blitz not even 10 percent of the time.

''They blitzed every down of every snap in every situation,'' Stewart said after the game. ''I would have done exactly what they did. They really, really had me and our offensive staff out of whack.''

UConn did that because it had young, inexperienced cornerbacks, and the coaches figured the best way to slow WVU's passing game was to get to the quarterback. It was an added bonus that those blitzers were filling the running lanes too, neutralizing one of the nation's premier running backs.

At halftime, it was back to the drawing board.

Jeff Mullen, WVU's offensive coordinator, said he'd have crumpled the offensive game plan up at halftime but it was laminated and, thus, wouldn't break down.

Its contents stood no chance against Uconn's steady diet of blitzes.

''We actually called the game in the second half off a yellow pad and a No. 2 pencil,'' Mullen said.

'Because the entire first half was something completely different than what they showed. For them in the short amount of time - I think they had a limited number of practices with their situation - I was very surprised they were able to get all that taught in such a short amount of time and execute it so well.''

In the second half, West Virginia's adjustments started to work. By the time it was over, Devine had added 171 more rushing yards, with a long run of 62 yards that set up a 1-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Jarrett Brown to tight end Tyler Urban.

It was Devine's 13th career 100-yard game, fifth this season. The Mountaineers are 11-2 when Devine rushes for more than 100 yards in a game.

• First Career Picks

Two West Virginia players picked up their first career interceptions in Chris Neild and Kent Richardson.

In Richardson's case, as was the case with linebacker J.T. Thomas against Colorado, he fumbled the ball back to the opponent on the return.

''You know what somebody's going to tell me, 'why don't you go hit 17 (Richardson) in the head with a ball bat,' '' Stewart said. ''Or why don't tell you him when he makes an interception and runs it 50 yards, 'why don't you get down?'

''What should I tell a guy like that when he's giving a great effort? You know what I did? I went and hugged him. I told him just tuck the ball. 'You're sharp, you know that, you made a great play, finish the play.' ''

Neild's interception sealed the game for the Mountaineers on a fourth-down play.

• Austin to the House

When Tavon Austin took the opening kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, it was the first time since Darius Reynaud in 2006 that the Mountaineers scored on a kickoff return. It was the seventh-longest return for a touchdown in school history.

Boy was Stewart glad to see that. Those points, it turns out, were extremely necessary.

''Had we not done that with what we were getting from that UConn staff, we'd have been scrambling big time,'' he said.

Captains

• West Virginia's captains were Anthony Wood, Brown, Williams, and Weir High grad Zac Cooper, who had a strip sack during UConn's frantic last-chance drive.