Since there are two weeks between games for both WVU and Pitt, I thought we would take a different angle at the Backyard Brawl. I turned to a WVU fan that knows his stuff and is very familiar with the Backyard Brawl. Please welcome Brian to the blog! I thank him for answering the following questions honestly and in good depth. I think we can all gain a little more respect for the Mountaineers after reading his answers. Enjoy below and the preview will be up probably a day early next week - due to the game being played on a Friday.
1. Will this be the last year of the Backyard Brawl in your opinion? If it is NOT...will it be the last one in Morgantown?
Hopefully not. I'm not sure how it will work with everything in flux because of re-alignment. I don't see Big 12 schedules made so teams can play out of conference rivals at the end of the year like ACC teams do (FSU-Flor, S. Car-Clem, UGA-GT). If they have out of conference rivals, they seem to play in Sept (Iowa-ISU). Personally, I hate all the realignment. I think it's silly that teams like Oklahoma-Nebraska and Texas-Texas A&M will not be yearly opponents. I miss the old Pitt-PSU-WVU-Syracuse, rivalries and I hope Pitt and WVU will not go away. Our rivalry with Virginia Tech ended a few years after they left. We do play Maryland from the ACC every year so if they want it to continue, it certainly can. I don't think this will be the last year, or this will be the last one in Morgantown, but it might go on hiatus for a bit. Our future schedules seem to be mostly full for a while. We got Maryland every year until 2017, a home and home with Florida State starting next year, then a home and home with Michigan State. It is all about what makes money. That's become painfully obvious lately.
2. What is your greatest memory of the Backyard Brawl?
I think tailgating with my friends and family. Most of my friends and all my family are Pitt fans and alumni so we had some good tailgates in Pittsburgh. Last year I watched with my brothers (one Pitt grad and one Pitt employee) and my brother's fiance (a Pitt grad/employee) in Hilton Head on vacation and I REALLY enjoyed sharing that 35-10 game with them! (Full disclosure, I grew up a Penn State fan and hated Pitt AND WVU, so when they used to play I was like, "Good, let these two idiots beat the shit out of each other and hopefully they'll tie. I think I hated WVU more to be honest. I remember being a little kid and WVU hung 50-some on Penn State and beat them and I had to go outside and sit on the steps because I didn't want anyone to see me cry. I ended up going to WVU for their Advertising School and I was very luke warm about going to their games at first. But I went to the Ohio State- WVU game my first year and was hooked.)
3. The title of this blog is pretty self explanatory for any Pitt or WVU die-hard fan....for myself, it was a great night. However, for WVU fans it became the end of the RichRod era in Morgantown and cost them a shot at the national championship. Were you shocked by the outcome OR are you like I am with Pitt (I get REALLY nervous when things seem way too easy for Pitt)?
Of course I was shocked by the outcome and I was even more shocked when we dismantled Oklahoma a month later. I STILL ask myself, how do you do that and lose to that horrible Pitt team 4 weeks ago. But that's what happens with a rivalry game. Either side can win based on emotion and hatred. While I was ecstatic about last years game, don't think that WVU was 25 points better than Pitt last year, just like Pitt wasn't better than WVU in 07. But anything can happen in these games. I'm sure all your Pitt followers will be happy to know that Dec. 1st, 2007 still haunts me. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Then the calls started and I just turned my phone of and put it in my girlfriend's purse. It was my fault though. I talked some good smack all week, I started the day texting all my friends, "Panther. It's whats for dinner." If I would have just kept my mouth shut...
4. We all know the Pitt perception of WVU fans (hicks, hillbillies, any inbred joke, etc)....what is WVU's perception of Pitt? Please be as negative as possible as I really want to know, so don't sugarcoat it.
I think Pitt's a good school, but I think Oakland is a dump. I would never have gone there. I'm from Pittsburgh, born and raised. My brother is getting married at the Cathedral in May and I'm already dreading having to spend the night in Oakland. I think Pitt's fans suck. I live in SEC country now and it's tough to argue what a good football city Pittsburgh is when the Panthers are playing conference games in front of 35,000 yellow seats. Holgerson was bitching because the student section wasn't filled for a game in the rain against Bowling Green drew jokes from Pitt, but watching Pitt home games on TV is embarrassing. I think Pitt would be way better off playing games on campus, but that's not going to happen again. And I think most Pitt fans are fairweathered. Just my honest opinion. And like most all college fan bases, their most obnoxious, least knowledgeable fans have no affiliation whatsoever with the university, they just want to mouth of and tell you how your teams sucks and they are going to kick your ass.
Note - I don't think many can argue with his answer here, especially with how the student section has even gotten into the embarrassing act this season.
5. What are your feelings on RichRod after a few years have passed?
I was done with Rich Rod on Dec. 2nd, 2007. Wasn't sad to see him leave. You can't lose that game. I don't hate him or anything. I know there was a lot of venom toward him in West Virginia because he was from there and played there. I thought he was better off staying at WVU then chasing the money and "prestige" of Michigan... and I was right. That didn't go too well for him.
6. Todd Graham is struggling, but improving every week with Pitt's new systems, so despite some hatred by Pitt's fan base, I for one, believe he is the right person for the job and this year's struggles will be worth it. With Dana Holgorsen coming in and being a little bit of a lightening rod and his comments on Mountaineer fans early in the year...how is he being received by the fan base and what are your feelings on him?
I like him. I think he has a proven track record everywhere he's gone with his offenses. I think he'll have an easier time recruiting then WVU has had recently due to his ties in Big 12 country, the fact that we can go to Virginia and Maryland and recruit players not as a Big East team, but a Big 12 team, and when he gets his kind of players in, his offense could be scary. I think the whole situation with him and Stewart was doomed from the start. I think one of the reasons they did that was honestly to keep him from going to Pitt. Oliver Luck and him had a relationship and WVU didn't want to see him 60 miles to the north.
7. Let's get to the game at hand with a few quick questions: What is the biggest weakness that WVU has this season?
Inconsistency. I'm not sure they've played a full game all year. They come out and blast Maryland in the first half and then let them creep to within a touchdown. They didn't show up for a few 1st halves. I think inconstistency is everyone's problem in the Big East. Are any of these teams better than any of the other ones? There is no clear best team. Any team can beat any other team on any given day. I think they'll all spectatuarly mediocre. Our o-line is lacking too. We lost a lot last year and haven't replaced them very well. Of course, I double as a Steeler fan so I'm used to that.
8. Who is the heart and soul (the backbone if you will) of the WVU defense?
Bruce Irvin and Keith Tandy both can be big time players, and Najee Goode is looking, well, good. He had a big game last week.
9. Will Bruce Irvin's twitter messages and Big East media day rant cost him on the 25th or is he a Joey Porter type...where the more he talks, the better he plays? He has 5.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss AND he missed two games.
I got to be honest, I'm not so sure what all he's said. But it's Pitt-WVU, no one needs any extra motivation.
10. Any key injuries for WVU going in? Pitt has had OL Lucas Nix out for a while now and the 25th should be his first game back since the South Florida game.
They got Jullian Miller back on the d-line and he looked good last week. They've been relatively lucky on the injury front.
BONUS QUESTION - What is your prediction for what could very well be the last Backyard Brawl for a while?
WVU 38 Pitt 27
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