MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- It wasn't supposed to be this way for the West Virginia football team. The Mountaineers were widely expected to be unbeaten when they took the field last night against Auburn. They were supposed to be in the midst of another national championship run and another run at the Heisman Trophy by quarterback Pat White.

The national championship hopes were extinguished by two losses in September. White's Heisman campaign was grounded by those losses and his somewhat declining play.

But on a cool autumn night with 60,765 partisans in the Mountaineer Field stands, the disappointing West Virginia football team recaptured its past. The offense that had been so ordinary through the first six games returned to its electrifying form.

On this night, at least, Noel Devine was Steve Slaton at his best and Jock Sanders wasn't far off. The Mountaineers fell behind early, with two interceptions by White being costly, but dominated the game through the final three quarters to salvage their season with a 34-17 win.

Devine, a sophomore from Florida, was spectacular in a memorable performance. He rushed for 209 yards on only 17 carries. He had seven runs of double-digit yards -- 36, 30, 29, 20, 20, 13, 13 -- as he darted and dashed through the Auburn defense, which came into the game ranked 15th in the nation.

Sanders, a running back/wide receiver, ran six times for 42 yards and caught four passes for 31 yards.

After throwing the interceptions, White settled down to play a strong game, completing 13 of 21 passes for 174 yards and three touchdowns.

It was the West Virginia of old, the West Virginia that had dominated play in the Big East Conference last year until its staggering upset loss to Pitt on the final game of the season, a defeat that denied it a chance to play for the national title.

The Mountaineers were strong defensively, too, holding Auburn scoreless in the second half.

The performance against a Southeastern Conference opponent re-established the Mountaineers as one of the favorites to win the Big East Conference championship, a role that had slipped from their grasp through six mediocre performances.

The victory was even more important for first-year coach Bill Stewart, who had been under intense and deserved pressure for the team's performance. The Mountaineers were a disappointing 4-2 going into the game, a record made all the worse by the fact that the wins were unimpressive and the losses came against ordinary opposition, East Carolina and Colorado.

There were few who thought Stewart was up to the task of rallying this team. In fact, there weren't many people who believed he deserved be coaching the Mountaineers.

But Stewart never wavered.

"I don't care if you're mad at me," he told the assembled media after the game. "I've got grit."

Stewart had been named interim coach following the departure of Rich Rodriguez to Michigan after the Pitt loss. Stewart was the perfect fit for that role. He was a born and bred Mountaineer, an assistant since 2000 and had no expectations of becoming head coach.

That all changed with West Virginia's stunning 42-28 win Jan. 2 over favored Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl. Although he hadn't even been a candidate for the job, he was named head coach just hours after the victory against Oklahoma.

The original push by West Virginia was to hire Doc Holliday, another former Mountaineer, off the staff of Urban Meyer at Florida where he was the associate head coach. When there was some opposition to Holliday, Terry Bowden expressed interest and it was returned. There was an offer to Jimbo Fisher of Florida State that was rejected. The matter stewed as the Oklahoma game approached, although Skip Holtz of East Carolina had an interview scheduled and many saw him as the successor.

Then came the euphoria after the Oklahoma victory. Immediately after the game, WVU President Mike Garrison guaranteed a place on the coaching staff for Stewart. The meaning was clear: Stewart would return to his role of assistant.

But that changed in the next few hours -- perhaps after the brass heard White say on national television that Stewart "deserved to be head coach."

If he was good enough for White, he was good enough for athletic director Ed Pastilong and the other powers that rule West Virginia athletics.

Before the dawn, Stewart was named head coach.

It looked like another in a long list of awful moves made in the past year by the West Virginia administration.

But for the moment, at least, Stewart is looking pretty good. But not nearly as good as his football team.