MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- It has been quite an eight days for -- as his head coach calls him -- "old No. 8."

No West Virginia fan will forget, perhaps because he soon thereafter became the subject of their ire, the visions of cornerback Keith Tandy, in his No. 8 jersey, getting beaten a few times last Friday in a 30-19 loss to South Florida.

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Scouting report

Matchup: West Virginia (6-2, 2-1 Big East) vs. Louisville (3-5, 0-3), noon today, Mountaineer Field, Morgantown, W.Va. The Mountaineers are favored by 20.

TV/Radio/Internet: WTAE; WWVA-AM (1170) and Mountaineer Sports Network.

West Virginia: Is in third place in the conference after losing, 30-19, against South Florida last Friday. ... Is 11-2 when RB Noel Devine rushes for at least 100 yards, which he did not do against South Florida. ... Is holding teams to just 3.1 yards per carry and 99.1 yards rushing per game. ... Has won five of the past seven games vs. Louisville.

Louisville: Is coming off a 21-13 win against Arkansas State. ... Could play any one of three quarterbacks against the Mountaineers -- Adam Froman, Will Stein or Justin Burke. ... WR Doug Beaumont has caught a pass in 20 consecutive games.

Hidden stat: West Virginia is first in the Big East in average attendance this season with 57,952 fans per game; South Florida is second at 49,866.

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Since then, Mountaineers coach Bill Stewart has faced the same two questions phrased in countless ways:

1. What happened out there with Tandy?

2. Will you bench him?

The answers steadfastly have been this: The young man simply got beat, it happens, and no, he will not be benched.

Tandy, a redshirt sophomore, will be out there with the starters at noon today when the Mountaineers (6-2, 2-1) play host to Big East foe Louisville (3-5, 0-3) at Mountaineer Field.

Stewart dug into the past with the Tandy issue, taking a lesson from last season. It was last year, in a loss at East Carolina, the corner on the opposite side, Brandon Hogan, got lost a few times.

"I'm not pleased we gave up touchdown passes, but if I listened to every person in the country other than myself, Brandon Hogan wouldn't be on the team," Stewart said. "I would have thrown him under the bus."

For his part, Tandy showed resolve this week.

When given the option to face the media or not, he chose to sit down and field questions.

And Tandy withstood a torrent.

"Playing cornerback, you are going to get beat on plays; that's going to happen sometimes," he said calmly.

"When it happens, you have to forget about it and just get ready for the next play."

It seems his teammates have already forgotten about Tandy's Tampa transgressions.

Take linebacker J.T. Thomas, for example.

"It's like this -- no one was complaining about Tandy when he was out there intercepting balls," Thomas said, matter-of-factly.

"But, he doesn't have his best outing and there's no need to jump on him now."

In a show of solidarity, safety Robert Sands also had Tandy's back.

"Coach doesn't want us to come down on each other and say it was Tandy's fault because it wasn't just one person's fault," Sands said.

"There were other people on that field and we didn't put enough pressure on the quarterback. ... [Stewart] doesn't want us to be finger pointers, he wants us to be 'I' guys, and that's what we're going to be."

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