It took just four meetings between South Florida and West Virginia to develop a brand new Big East rivalry, one that for West Virginia may only be second to the long-time Backyard Brawl rivalry with Pitt. WVU running back Noel Devine, a Ft. Myers, Fla., native, has extra incentive for this year’s game at USF, one that is a homecoming of sorts for Devine and 17 other Mountaineers who hail from the Sunshine State.

“It is most definitely going to make me play harder going back to Florida,” said Devine. “It is like a homecoming and half of the people that I played against and my old teammates are there so it is exciting.”

This year’s installment of the rivalry is a Friday night primetime match-up between USF (5-2, 1-2 BIG EAST) and No. 20 WVU (6-1, 2-0 BIG EAST), with the winner gaining an edge in a series that’s seen each school win two games a piece. However, the Bulls are winners of two of the last three over the Mountaineers.

Jarrett Brown, quarterback of the Mountaineers, is originally from West Palm Beach, Fla., which is around a three-hour drive to Tampa, home of USF. Brown said his mother, Sherry, is bringing two buses full of family and friends to Friday night’s game.

But Brown downplayed the newly emerged rivalry with the Bulls so that emotions wouldn’t become too big a factor in the game. “I always tell myself I would never try to do something to impress the crowd or anything,” he said. “Sometimes it is tough because emotions start to takeover. I think it’s natural, but you’ve got to understand what you’re trying to accomplish out there.”

Alric Arnett, one of the leading receivers for WVU, played high school football for Glades Central High, in Belle Glade, Fla., alongside then-teammate Jessie Hester, who now is a receiver for USF. If WVU is able to win, Arnett said, “I wouldn’t rub it in too much. I want to come out with the win.”

WVU Middle linebacker Anthony Leonard has a unique perspective on the game. Leonard is from McKeesport, Pa., just outside of Pittsburgh, and said the fact that WVU recruits the talent-laden state of Florida so heavily, as it does Pennsylvania, shows up in rivalry games. “I feel as though this is definitely a rival, especially for the Florida boys because they played against all them in high school,“ he said. “Some of them were even teammates. That’s like us playing against Pitt.”

For the Mountaineers to earn an important conference road win come Friday, they will have to find answers to the Bulls’ speed and athleticism that head coach Jim Leavitt has assembled at nearly all positions. WVU offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen is charged with the task of play calling against two of college football’s premier defensive ends -- Jason Pierre-Paul and George Selvie.

“Physically, they are one of the better teams in our league [and] physically, one of the better teams in the country, probably” said Mullen. “They are very similar to Auburn in terms of their talent, so we’re going to have our hands full.”

By the numbers, Pierre Paul has 23 tackles on the season, including nine-and-a-half tackles for loss and two sacks. Selvie is a two-time first team All-American who has already racked up 27 tackles, six-and-a-half tackles for loss and three sacks, on the season. Selvie (pictured below left) has 31.5 tackles for loss, which is one shy of the all-time single season NCAA record. He has 28.5 sacks, which is one short of the NCAA record among active career sack leaders.

It goes without saying those two players could create chaos for WVU. “They are two stellar, top-notch All-American candidates that are playing very well,” said WVU head coach Bill Stewart.

Brown says he will make protection calls at the line of scrimmage, but admitted he doesn’t want to think too much about the rush coming from Pierre-Paul and Selvie. Ultimately, the WVU offensive line will have to contain the rush coming from the talented ends.

“A lot of teams will blitz to bring pressure,” Brown said. “That’s a team that doesn’t have to blitz to bring pressure. They can play a base defense and still get pressure just from their athletic defensive ends.”

In the last two meetings against USF, WVU has posted just 13 points on offense in each game; in 2007, the Bulls beat WVU in Tampa, 21-13, and in 2008, WVU edged USF, 13-7, in Morgantown.

Stewart fully realizes the way WVU has struggled with USF in recent meetings and anticipates similar results could come on Friday night. “They have handled us pretty well in the last two of the last three outings. We have not done well against them offensively,” he said. “We went down two years ago and put the ball over of the place. If we go down there and do that again, the same thing will happen”

Said Mullen, “ I know there were problems moving the ball at those times. Certainly that 13 we put on them last year was tough. But the thing that we learned from last year is that we are able to win.”

And winning is the bottom line in any rivalry game. “Whether we score 13 or 1,300, we just want more one [point] than those guys,” said Mullen.

Looking at this season, USF jumped out to a sizzling start at 5-0, a mark they’ve reached in each of the last three seasons, including a marquee in-state win at Florida State.

But similar to each of the last three seasons, the Bulls have suffered mid-season skids that have deflated momentum in chasing the program’s first ever Big East championship, after joining the league back in 2005. Cincinnati and Pitt disposed of USF with relative ease in the Bulls’ last two games, combining for an eye-opening 75 points against Leavitt’s sometimes vaunted defense.

Against WVU, however, another offensive explosion is unlikely to occur. The Mountaineer coaches have studied areas of weakness they may try to attack within the USF defense.

“It’s all about match-ups,” said WVU running backs coach Chris Beatty. “It’s more so match-ups than it is, Pitt’s better than this team or what have you. I think they match-up really well, personnel-wise, with us.”

Devine, who ranks No. 3 in the NCAA in rushing yards a game (130), will most likely play an important role in exploiting favorable match-ups the WVU staff has identified. He played in both of the last two games against the Bulls, but is not looking back on past results. “That was then and this is now,” he said.

Stewart, like all, does not know what to fully expect for Friday‘s game. “You don’t know till you get out there and start swinging. As coach [Don] Nehlen used to say, this is a 90-minute slug fight.”