MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- With the possibility that West Virginia starting center Mike Dent might miss the Louisville game Saturday and perhaps the rest of the regular season because of a pinched nerve in his neck, Eric Jobe is hunched over the football and ready.

And Dent remains in Jobe's earhole, as his roomie and de facto center coach.

"Friday night," Jobe recalled about the eve of the Nov. 8 overtime loss to Cincinnati in which he took over that starting spot, "he was talking to me about the game on Saturday. He told me I'd do fine. When I'd come off the sideline [during the game], he'd say the snaps are good, I'm blocking well. ... He's helped me a lot. He's got a knowledge of the game. He's been here five years."

Dent, a Jeannette High School graduate, had started 21 consecutive games, replacing a consensus All-America and Rimington Trophy winner in Dan Mozes. Then, against Connecticut, a collision caused numbness down both arms, and Dent got a penalty before the next snap for moving the ball at the line -- when he merely tried to regain his sense of touch and feel it. Last night, Dent spoke of being re-evaluated by doctors at week's end and hoping to play Saturday, though other Mountaineers talked about their concern for his long-term health.

"Basically, I'm taking this week like I'm playing" at Louisville, said Dent, whose swollen but pain-free neck was described by coach Bill Stewart as "week-to-week" status.

"You can't replace a Mike Dent," offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen added of the 2007 all-Big East second-teamer and 2008 Rimington watch-list candidate. "You're talking about a kid who's a probable NFL performer. We definitely miss Mike Dent. All the things I heard [about the ailment], we're very hopeful."

So Jobe, a 6-foot-5, 293-pound redshirt sophomore, may well be sliding into that regular starting spot ahead of schedule. Then again, Seton-LaSalle's Gino Gradkowski, younger brother of former NFL quarterback Bruce, is seemingly headed for a redshirt season but was listed as Jobe's backup at center for the eventual 26-23 overtime loss to Cincinnati at Mountaineer Field. The lineup may well be the same Saturday when the Mountaineers (6-3, 3-1 Big East) confront Louisville (5-5, 1-4), which has lost three in a row, on ESPN and in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Jobe is used to injuries and attrition. For one thing, in his sophomore season in high school, only 23 players suited up for the La Plata Warriors' season finale. For another, he centered the first-team Mountaineers offense for much of spring drills while Dent was recuperating from hip surgery.

"The spring really enabled me to go out with the new offense, especially with the new coaching staff coming in," Jobe said. "So it wasn't a whole new experience for me [to snap to Patrick White against Cincinnati]."

It was, however, Jobe's first collegiate start. Nothing like going against one of the Big East's best defensive lines, and one that went two deep that night and toyed with the running game by permitting White and Noel Devine a combined 99 yards on 39 carries.

"A couple of the [four] sacks, we could have prevented," Jobe said of the offensive line. "There was a lot of [Bearcats] movement up front. When we got the hang of it, we got to block them. But I think we executed pretty well. We got to clean up everything, though."

Louisville's defense can make a mess of opposing running games. It ranks eighth among major-college teams -- ahead of such Top-10 teams as Penn State and Florida -- allowing just 95.4 yards per game. The Cardinals have yielded just nine rushing touchdowns, or one below the Mountaineers' meager total. By the way, the previous time West Virginia produced fewer rushing touchdowns at this juncture was 14 seasons ago, with a half-dozen scores on the ground through nine games of 1994.