MORGANTOWN - Fans have noticed it and this week Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt brought it up, too. West Virginia's much-maligned offense has gone back to what it does best, which is keep the ball in the hands of quarterback Pat White and let him make plays with his feet.

Shoot, even West Virginia coach Bill Stewart said as much last Saturday after White carried the ball 21 times for 200 yards in a win at Louisville.

"I took some of your advice,'' Stewart told the media, "and put the ball in his hands.''

Here's the thing, though. White didn't run the ball any less earlier this season than he had in previous years. And the fact that he's running the ball more late in the season is no different than when he did in years past.

The bottom line is that every year White has been West Virginia's quarterback, his carries have increased as the season wore on. And at his current pace, he will carry it more this year than he ever has.

Still, as the Mountaineers (7-3, 4-1 Big East) prepare for Friday's 101st Backyard Brawl with Pitt (7-3, 3-2) at Heinz Field, the prevailing theory almost universally is that West Virginia is returning to the roots of its spread offense and letting White carry the load.

"I think they've made a change,'' Wannstedt said. "I can't be exact as far as when, but they did start off a little bit different than what they were doing on offense a year ago. I would say four or five games ago, they started making the transition back to their old offense. And the biggest thing that has changed is with Pat White carrying the football. They were throwing it a little bit more and handing it off and now they're back to a little bit more of their zone read stuff and their option stuff.''

Wannstedt is certainly right that the Mountaineers lately have reverted more to what was their bread-and-butter offense of previous seasons. In the past three games - against Connecticut, Cincinnati and Louisville - White has carried 21, 20 and 21 times, almost all of them designed runs. In his first six games, he averaged just 13.5 carries.

But the reality is that every year White's pattern of carries has been remarkably similar to this season.

Throw out his freshman year because until the eighth game of the season, he was splitting time with Adam Bednarik, so his carries naturally increased when he became the starter. But as a sophomore in 2006, he averaged just 8.6 carries in the first five games, had 15 in each of the next two and averaged 18.4 carries in his last five. Last year as a junior, he averaged 10.6 carries in the first seven games and 20.5 in the last six.

In fact, there is actually a case to be made that White was asked to carry the ball more earlier this season than he ever had in the past. He carried 20 times for 97 yards at East Carolina and 19 times for 148 yards at Colorado, both in the first three games of the season. He had never before carried more than 17 times in a game played during the first half of a season and had averaged just 9.2 carries in those games.

And if he continues to carry 20 times in WVU's final two regular-season games and a bowl, White will finish the season with 203 carries - a career high, even though he will play one fewer game this season than last.

Numbers aside, though, there is no question that West Virginia has, indeed, changed its offense and reverted more to what worked in years past. Whether that was a concession to a somewhat-failed strategy of trying to diversify the offense or just a natural adaptation to conditions is up for debate.

White suggests it is the latter.

"We have a great staff. From week to week they make adjustments,'' White said. "They're very smart, very young and very educated in the game of football. I just listen to my coaching and try to make plays.

"As defenses change, you have to adapt your offense. You have to know what's good and what the coverages are and what's going to work. I think the coaches do an excellent job with that.''

Stewart has maintained since he took over the program that the Mountaineers had to tweak the offense. Despite its overwhelming success in the past, the run-based spread was being victimized recently by smart defenses that were able to disregard the pass and load the box to stop the run. Pitt did just that a year ago in its monumental 13-9 win at Mountaineer Field.

But while Stewart doesn't deny that White is getting the ball more now and that the offense has gone somewhat back toward its roots, that doesn't necessarily signal a change of philosophy.

"Our goal was to get Patrick through the season,'' Stewart said. "He carried the ball at times when we had to do whatever we had to do to win the football game. He carried it more [at Louisville] probably more than he has in the past, sure. Anybody can see the stats.

"But our goal this year was to try to win as many games as we could and try to build this program and try to incorporate some type of pro-style passing attack, rather than just quick gains [with bubble screens], deep balls and play action. We had to come up with a plan for when people tried to load the box and that's still what we're going to try to do. We'll do the same thing next year and every year.

"If we've become more Pat White-oriented here lately, then I guess that's what we've done. But I don't know that. We're just doing what we have to do.''

Reach Dave Hickman at 348-1734 or dphickm...@aol.com.