MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- In this Big East Conference title bout, and West Virginia years ago created some championship belts to hold aloft in such events, strength confronts strength. Power meets power.

Connecticut wants to run the ball.

West Virginia strives to stymie the run.

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Showdown in the Big East

• Game: No. 4 West Virginia (9-1, 4-1 Big East) vs. No. 20 Connecticut (9-2, 5-1).
• When: 3:30 p.m. Saturday.
• Where: Mountaineer Field, Morgantown, W.Va.
• TV: WTAE.
• At stake: The winner all but wraps up the conference championship and the BCS bowl berth that goes with it. For West Virginia, the possibility of a spot in the BCS title game Jan. 7 in New Orleans also would remain alive.

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Connecticut tries to limit mistakes, win with defense.

West Virginia attempts to limit mistakes, smother with offense.

Come out of those corners and have a fair fight, fellas.

"Yeah, it works out kind of well, huh?" Mountaineers defensive end Scooter Berry said of this 3:30 p.m. Saturday, ABC-televised title match from Mountaineer Field, where fourth-ranked West Virginia (9-1, 4-1) faces upstart and 20th-ranked Connecticut (9-2, 5-1) for a conference championship belt.

Mountaineers defensive coordinator Jeff Casteel added, "They're a football team that wants to try to control the game."

That approach has worked well for the Huskies, who attained six of their nine victories by an average of 27.5 points. They beat Temple, Louisville and South Florida by a touchdown or fewer, they lost at Virginia by one point and fell two weeks ago at Cincinnati, 27-3. Greg Robinson, coach of Syracuse that lost at Connecticut, 30-7, Saturday, labeled this style "methodically working."

The Huskies rely on rushers Andre Dixon (742 yards) and Donald Brown (620), separately the fifth- and seventh-best backs in the Big East statistically speaking, combined second only to Rutgers' Ray Rice.

"I like them both," said Mountaineers linebacker Mortty Ivy of Gateway. "They both run hard. They both got good speed. If we can get low and drive them back, we'll be OK."

"I think we've been pretty stiff against the run this year," Berry added of the Mountaineers, who, at 93 yards per game, permit almost half of what Connecticut's rushing attack averages. "If you bring it at us, we're going to accept."

Connecticut quarterback Tyler Lorenzen ranks in the Big East bottom half in every category but one. Only West Virginia's Patrick White in the conference is more careful with the pass, yielding three interceptions to Lorenzen's five -- and Lorenzen has attempted 120 more passes. Just seven major-college quarterbacks have thrown fewer interceptions on average than Lorenzen while attempting more passes than him.

"They're running game and play-action game go hand in hand," said Casteel, whose defense has faced the wide-open, quarterback-centric attacks of Brian Brohm's Louisville and Ben Mauk's Cincinnati most recently. "That'll be a little different from what we've seen the last few weeks, which has been to spread it out and try to throw the ball. It's even different from what we're seeing in college football.

"But they've been efficient. They haven't turned the ball over [Connecticut ranks second in major-college football with just 11 turnovers lost -- six fewer giveaways than West Virginia]. The quarterback is doing a very good job of taking care of the ball. And those two [backs] combined are averaging over 5 yards a carry. They're doing a nice job offensively."

Defensively, the Huskies rank in the top 25 in Division I-A in four of the five statistical categories, primarily the most important one: No. 3 in points allowed, just 14.27 per game. By contrast, West Virginia ranks No. 8, at 17.30 points -- with top-ranked LSU's ballyhooed defense one slot behind the Mountaineers at 17.40.

The Huskies have started the same 11 players on defense every game this season. By contrast, West Virginia has used 15 different starters and six starting combinations.

"They're a fundamental team," said Mountaineers tailback Steve Slaton, who will be part of the rushing attack that will run into a Connecticut defense allowing 125.9 yards per game and but six touchdowns total on the ground. "They try not to make too many mistakes."

Rather, they try to capitalize on yours. Connecticut ranks second in interceptions, with 21. They returned five of those for touchdowns. Only Wake Forest returned more, with six.

"They're playing good, solid football and making teams make plays to beat them, and those are pretty good components to success," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "They've also had a lot of blowout games, they've gotten ahead of people and not let them back in. They're playing so solid."

Whoever lands the more solid blows Saturday leaves with a title.

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NOTE -- Additional tickets to the Connecticut-West Virginia game go on sale between 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday at the Mountaineer Ticket Office. Tickets also will be available at the Mountaineer Field box office starting at noon Saturday. Tickets are $45 apiece and based upon availability. Because students are on Thanksgiving break, sections left unclaimed also will be available to the public.