MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- Bill Stewart lectured his Mountaineers yesterday about avoiding a certain R-word in relation to Friday's Backyard Brawl, a game that last year was, for West Virginia, a Backyard Bawl.

Did the coach vow retribution if any player publicly invoked this unmentionable term?

"Kind of," said West Virginia offensive tackle Ryan Stanchek, and he then grinned.

"No revenge," Stewart had pointedly said. "I don't like that word. I don't like that word at all. Let's leave the word 'revenge' out of it. I'm going to talk to our players about that: Just talk about the game."

So, when the subject yesterday came to the 13-9 upset by Pitt Dec. 1, the historic loss that knocked top-ranked West Virginia from a national championship-game chance, the current Mountaineers became reticent. Reluctant. Resistant, even.

But they were not revenge-bent.

Kicker-punter Pat McAfee, of Plum, uttered a different R-word -- redemption -- though it was more aimed at his two missed field-goal tries early in last year's Brawl at Mountaineer Field.

"I'm looking forward to kind of redeeming myself," McAfee said. "I've been looking forward to this game ever since it happened. ... This year should be an emotionally charged match. [Last year] definitely sparked something."

What if the 101st Brawl's outcome hinged on his foot at hometown Heinz Field?

"It'd be awesome," he said. "I'd like to blow them out, obviously. 'Cause you want to win a game by a lot. But if it comes down to a field goal, I'd really, really like that situation."

Sure, Mountaineers from the WPIAL hear it from folks at home. "A few words back and forth," receiver Wes Lyons of Woodland Hills said.

Gateway linebacker Mortty Ivy, though, swears his old buddies Scott McKillop and Adam Gunn, both Pitt linebackers from Kiski, didn't give him grief when they went out to eat together at times this offseason.

"You can't really look at it anymore," Ivy continued. "Everybody knows what the Backyard Brawl is. No need to say more."

"It's Pitt; there's nothing from last year," offered safety Quinton Andrews, usually loquacious but this week muted. "I'll never forget it. But you can't do anything looking back on yesterday. So I'm just moving on."

Still, tailback Noel Devine said, it is apparent from practice what week this is: "It's a lot different. It's a lot different. It's like everybody's hungrier and they want to eat."

Stewart impressed upon West Virginia (7-3, 4-1 Big East) that it's all about Pitt (7-3, 3-2), not 13-9.

"The University of Pittsburgh came in here last year and hit us flush on the chin, in a title fight, and got after us," Stewart said, invoking as much a boxing metaphor as the Mountaineers' New Orleans knockout. "So let's get that right out there at the get-go. Some people may say that's an upset [by a four-touchdown underdog]. All I know is, Pitt came in here and whacked us around pretty good. I know we missed a couple of field goals, but I know they knocked us around real good. They beat our butt last year in a football game, bottom line.

"What we have to do is worry about playing a good football game. Just take care of business."

NOTES -- McAfee, who only 28 games ago became a punter at the coaches' request, yesterday was named one of three finalists for the Ray Guy Award for punting, to be awarded Dec. 11. The other two: Utah's Lou Sakoda and Oklahoma State's Matt Fodge. ... Patrick White, after rushing for 200 yards at Louisville to establish a major-college career high for rushing quarterbacks (4,292 and counting) and accounting for five touchdowns, was named Big East offensive player of the week. ... With Pitt rated No. 25 in the Bowl Championship Series standings and West Virginia that same spot in the USA Today coaches' poll, it marks the first Brawl since 2004 that both teams have entered with rankings. ... Stewart dismissed the new sod installation at Heinz Field as having any bearing, saying his team would play on a "blacktop parking lot." Lyons added, "We can play on carpet, turf, cement ... I don't care."