MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Rich Rodriguez could barely get the words out. He paused. He shook his head. He looked down at the table in front of him, as if searching for a way to describe how West Virginia let its chance at a national title slip away.

Eventually the Mountaineers' coach came up with this.

"It was just a nightmare," he said. "The whole thing was a nightmare."

In a season defined by upsets, the second-ranked Mountaineers became the latest to be felled by the curse of No. 2, falling to their fierce rival Pittsburgh 13-9 Saturday night.

A win away from playing for the national championship, the Mountaineers (10-2, 5-2 Big East) were expected to roll over rival Pittsburgh (5-7, 3-4) in the 100th Brackyard Brawl on their way to New Orleans for the Bowl Championship Series title game.

No way. Not in this unpredictable season, when nothing has gone according to plan and upsets have become so frequent the word itself has almost lost its meaning.

Pitt, which had lost four of the last five to West Virginia and allowed 45 points to the Mountaineers in each of the last two games in the series, celebrated the biggest victory of coach Dave Wannstedt's three lackluster seasons.

"I remember walking off the field two years ago at halftime saying that we needed to run faster," said Wannstedt, who received a three-year contract extension on Friday. "Today, we ran faster."

The Pitt coach improved to 16-19 and repaid the university for its show of faith with a BCS-busting victory.

"It's exciting to know people believe in you, even after a difficult season," said Wannstedt, who like Rodriguez is coaching his alma mater.

No. 2 had already lost six times this season, five times to unranked teams. In a year when Appalachian State beat Michigan and 41-point underdog Stanford beat Southern California, West Virginia losing as a four-touchdown favorite probably shouldn't even be all that shocking.