MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The beleaguered offensive coordinator takes heed. Even through his headset, the displeasure comes in loud and clear. Mountaineers boobirds and blame-throwers, in fact, are welcome to direct their indignation and ire at Jeff Mullen, so says Jeff Mullen.

"'Course I hear them," said Mullen, a West Virginia assistant who was in the crosshairs after the Mountaineers defeated Syracuse, 17-6, Saturday. It was the Mountaineers' fifth consecutive Division I-A game scoring three touchdowns or fewer. "Shoot, I'm booing myself half the time, anyway. Clearly, we got to [turn] them into cheers. You'd like to throw up 40 points and 400 yards every time."

West Virginia followers are offended by the relative inoffensive nature of a program noted for making scoreboards tilt in recent years. Only once since 1994 have the Mountaineers scored so few points in the opening six games of a season (133), and that (108) came in Rich Rodriguez's first season of 2001. Not since 1979 has West Virginia failed to score at least 30 points in one of those opening six games.

So on a home Saturday when the nation's sixth-to-last ranked defense suddenly limited West Virginia (4-2, 2-0 Big East) to barely half the 36 points and 462 yards Syracuse normally permits, it's no surprise fans became vocal. Six times at least, and on second- and third-and-long passes in particular, most of the Mountaineer Field patrons got all hissy. Mullen's perspective: Keep it coming ... at him.

"If it all falls on me, that's good," said Mullen, a 17-year coaching veteran in his first year calling plays.

Coach Bill Stewart talked afterward of Patrick White's replacement, second-time starter Jarrett Brown, missing some reads. White was out with a concussion. Stewart yesterday added that Brown wasn't healthy, either.

"He got the heck knocked out of him last week," Stewart said. "He had a thigh and a shoulder, and we [already] had one quarterback on the shelf. Jarrett Brown went into a tough situation and led his team to a victory. We just missed some stuff."

Stewart noticed that Brown's throwing was errant from the game's first and third plays from scrimmage, when he overthrow an open Alric Arnett deep and missed Will Johnson, respectively. Only six times in his next 18 attempts did Brown throw the ball even a few yards downfield, and only once more than 8 yards.

Brown averaged just 2.2 yards per rush and a paltry 3.7 yards per completion on 14-for-20 passing for 52 yards. Out-of-sync West Virginia had just seven first-quarter plays and two first downs through the opening 20 minutes. And Mullen maintained that he was at fault, not the quarterback, even if Brown used reads or checkdowns to try shorter passes.

"Heavens no. Jarrett Brown did what he was coached to do," Mullen said. "I've got to do a better job of getting him more of those play calls with a chance to stretch it downfield. It's clearly on me, not him."

Noel Devine nearly compiled his 100-yard average in the first half Saturday when he averaged a gaudy 7.9 yards per attempt, but then rushed only once in the third quarter. The I-formation from which he darted 92 yards for the touchdown that secured the victory in the fourth quarter is something Mullen intends to study further. Stewart gushed that it was "a tremendous call" by Mullen to spring Devine on that motion-play, third-and-8 zone sweep against a nine-man Syracuse front, and it was "blocked like it was manuscripted."

So next for West Virginia comes another team beset by offensive woes and a tumble from the polls: Auburn. Tigers coach Tommy Tuberville Wednesday, in a rare midseason move, fired offensive coordinator Tony Franklin and appears ready to ditch the spread formation that Franklin was hired in December to install. The beleaguered Mountaineers' offensive coordinator takes heed.

"I'm too worried about taking care of those football players to worry about my job situation," Mullen said. "I have absolutely no fears about that. My only fear is this football team doesn't get the success it deserves."

Should Mullen accomplish all that -- coach them satisfactorily, teach them properly, allow them to succeed -- and still "if that costs me my job, then I've done my job."

NOTES: The home crowd of 58,133 was the smallest since the 2006 Thanksgiving weekend loss to South Florida and some 989 fewer than the Rutgers crowd a week earlier. ... The Mountaineers' defense, since permitting two Colorado touchdowns in the opening five minutes, has allowed just two touchdowns and five field goals in the past 15²/₃ quarters and one in overtime. That's roughly eight points per game. ... Stewart was frustrated by two holding calls on All-American offensive tackle Ryan Stanchek. Joked Stanchek: "The offensive line pretty much holds every play. I only got caught twice. My first and second of the year."