I posted that WVU fans understood my desire to see Pitt beat WVU and knock them out of the Championship game. Those of us involved in the Brawl understand its significance. Interestingly enough, post game almost all the complaints about Pitt winning the game have come from fans of teams other than Pitt & WVU. The WVU fans have congratulated us on the win and not delved into all the things that could have happened had they won. They understand. If the roles were reversed, they would have wanted to knock us down a peg or 2 as well. I hope that there will be some more rivalries in the BE that develop like this. Unless you grow up in it, you never really understand. Rodriguez never gave Pitt an ounce of credit for their performance, nor will he. We recruit directly against each other. Long live the Brawl.

Agreed Shannon!

Shannon Panther Wrote:I posted that WVU fans understood my desire to see Pitt beat WVU and knock them out of the Championship game. Those of us involved in the Brawl understand its significance. Interestingly enough, post game almost all the complaints about Pitt winning the game have come from fans of teams other than Pitt & WVU. The WVU fans have congratulated us on the win and not delved into all the things that could have happened had they won. They understand. If the roles were reversed, they would have wanted to knock us down a peg or 2 as well. I hope that there will be some more rivalries in the BE that develop like this. Unless you grow up in it, you never really understand. Rodriguez never gave Pitt an ounce of credit for their performance, nor will he. We recruit directly against each other. Long live the Brawl.

I have no problem with Pitt beating WVU. When the game started I was rooting for WVU so they could get into the BCS Title game but after the official calls I switched.

Pitt job is not to lay down for WVU. If WVU was actually good enough to play for the BCS title then they would have taken care of business @ home. They couldn't get it done.

i read an article that said the pitt bus encountered a group of wvu fans on the way to the game and the fans chucked rocks at it. than lesean mccoy gave his speech telling everyone how much hatred there was between the schools and how they needed to beat them. good job wvu, nothing like the fans pissing off the entire pitt team right before the game.

i'll admit i'm ticked off about the loss, but i'm fine if pitt can use this game to get back into the upper echelon of the league. if next year they go back to their usual ways of losing games to navy than this will look more and more like a fluke and i'll be doubly pissed.

I have nothing against Pitt's national aspirations. I rooted for them against Utah and I would again if they were in a NC. Of course it would be best if their only loss in the year they won it was to WVU (not that it could happen with the game at the end of the year).

I don't think my lack of hatred for Pitt makes me any less of a WVU fan. I would be embarrassed watching shoddy treatment of Pitt fans or rocks being thrown at the team bus. It is classless to show no respect for your opponent.

My only interest is having WVU beat Pitt. If that knocks them out of their title chase then so be it. I respect Pitt fans that feel the same way so I understand their satisfaction with their latest win.

Naturally many BE fans rooted for WVU because WVU was playing for a spot in the national championship. Bottom line is WVU did not get it done in the biggest game. This game was more about WVU not playing their game. I hope Pitt comes back, but this was more about WVU not delivering.

I understand. Slightly OT, but it's interesting that a Pitt fan came to our Rivals board after the game incensed that, in his opinion, not enough USF fans came to the Pitt Rivals board to offer congratulations. It's caused a bit of a dust up between this guy and several USF fans. What's more amazing is that I don't recall him coming to our board when we beat either Auburn or West Virginia, but that's beside the point.

At what point do we just try to do what's best for our programs and not worry about who is happy or unhappy for us?

USFFan

There is a reason the Brawl is one of the great rivalries in college football. There is a reason why folks say "Anything can happen in rivalry games - throw out the records!!"

We all support the BE when we can, but our home teams come first. It's understandable that Pitt fans are ecstatic about knocking off WVU and ruining the Mountaineers national title hopes. Obviously, that goes without saying.

Pitt hasn't been all that great in recent years, and the Brawl has lost some of its luster. Many WVU fans have looked towards VPI, and then more recently towards UL, as a "real" rival. But the Brawl is still there, obviously, and next year will be more fierce than ever.

USFMike Wrote:i read an article that said the pitt bus encountered a group of wvu fans on the way to the game and the fans chucked rocks at it.

Embarrassing.

Shannon Panther Wrote:I posted that WVU fans understood my desire to see Pitt beat WVU and knock them out of the Championship game. Those of us involved in the Brawl understand its significance. Interestingly enough, post game almost all the complaints about Pitt winning the game have come from fans of teams other than Pitt & WVU. The WVU fans have congratulated us on the win and not delved into all the things that could have happened had they won. They understand. If the roles were reversed, they would have wanted to knock us down a peg or 2 as well. I hope that there will be some more rivalries in the BE that develop like this. Unless you grow up in it, you never really understand. Rodriguez never gave Pitt an ounce of credit for their performance, nor will he. We recruit directly against each other. Long live the Brawl.

I was really ticked that WV lost the game. I wasn't as ticked that Pitt beat them. If WV was going to get beat by someone, I'm just glad it was another BE team. I am now glad that it was Pitt, because Wannstaedt really needed a signiture win, and it doesnt get any better than this win against WV. Interesting that WV has not lost an ooc game since 2005. That includes bowl games as well. They have only been beaten by BE teams.

wvucrazed Wrote:There is a reason the Brawl is one of the great rivalries in college football. There is a reason why folks say "Anything can happen in rivalry games - throw out the records!!"

We all support the BE when we can, but our home teams come first. It's understandable that Pitt fans are ecstatic about knocking off WVU and ruining the Mountaineers national title hopes. Obviously, that goes without saying.

Pitt hasn't been all that great in recent years, and the Brawl has lost some of its luster. Many WVU fans have looked towards VPI, and then more recently towards UL, as a "real" rival. But the Brawl is still there, obviously, and next year will be more fierce than ever.

Truer words were never spoken. There have been many great upsets in rivalry games over the years, and the Backyard Brawl has just added another chapter in an ongoing story.

I hope Pitt continues to play at a higher level. But they'd better be ready to play against the Mountaineers next year. Basically, the whole team will be back.

wvucrazed Wrote:

USFMike Wrote:i read an article that said the pitt bus encountered a group of wvu fans on the way to the game and the fans chucked rocks at it.

Embarrassing.

Sounds like going to football games at Logan or Mann as the away team when I was in high school.

I think this Pitt win may finally put the luster back on the Brawl and WVu as Pitt's rival in the eyes of many Pitt fans. Many Pitt fans still consider PSU to be the rival even though they haven't played since 2000 and no other games are scheduled.

But, to beat WVu - who had a chance to goto the NC, during the 100th Brawl, etc, etc - I really hope that the Pitt fanbase really gets behind this rivalry and the team again. This win can and I certainly hope be the starting point to lauch Pitt back to the top.

Here's an article that catches the feelings of many Pitt fans:

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/vie...p?t=313964

I may not be the best example because I have family and friends that are Pitt fans but I don't think I would get any extra pleasure knocking Pitt out of the National Championship. Winning of course is always a priority and if the National Championship is on the line then so be it. You always to win the big one against your rival.

Like I said I may not be the best example but I root for Pitt as long as they aren't playing WVU. The more wins they have the better you look when you beat them. I think losing an opportunity that may only come along once or twice in a lifetime is something I'd only wish on my worst of enemies. I have a lot of respect for the Pitt fans I know.

I have nothing against WVU any weekend except Brawl weekend. I have family in Morgantown who are WVU season ticket holders. They used to get us tickets down there and we'd get them tickets up in Pittsburgh. My real pleasure in beating WVU was that Pitt finally put a complete game together and won. Wanny's first 2 seasons he had a very good offense and poor defense. This year injuries decimated the offense, but the defense has finally started playing at a level you'd expect with a head coach who won both a national championship and a Super Bowl as a D Coordinator.

Pitt needed this win badly. Wanny is a great recruiter, but you can only sell potential for so long. Tyrell Pryor (5* QB) committed to Pitt to play basketball as a soph. Now he is a highly recruited FB & BB player and he dropped Pitt off the list months ago. We lost Hubie Graham (4* TE)to IL. This win will allow Wanny to go into kids homes and talk about what happened Saturday and paint a rosy picture with the kid he's recruiting in it.

Next year, we should be able to compete with everyone on the schedule, no matter who. WVU is bringing back a bunch, so is Pitt. We lose Otah which will be a big loss, but most of our seniors are already backed up by more talented kids. With this year's experience we should be that much better.

I'm not an extreme fan by any means but I have a feeling that if Pitt fans focus on taking away the NC game this series could get uglier real fast. If you put yourself in WVU's fans shoes I'm sure you could relate. Blowing a chance at the NC will probably be a more sensitive subject then just losing by being out played. It was a great win for Pitt and it should rightfully jump start your season next year.

For my families sake I hope the series doesn't become quite as mean spirited as the OSU - Michigan series for example. I also wouldn't appreciate more Pitt (or WVU) fans being comfortable going to a road game. Hopefully the fans can maintain some level of sportsmanship.

When I was attending university at WVU, the Pitt game was the one I always circled on the calendar. That rivarly is heated...you could feel it in the air. No matter what the records of each team, you could be assured that The Backyard Brawl was going to be good! I can still remember the good times of watching the game and going to Buck's Place in South Park afterwards to continue the festivities!

Bouncing back
By Terry Bowden, Yahoo! Sports
December 3, 2007

There is no defining moment in any man's life.

After watching West Virginia's crushing loss to Pittsburgh on Saturday night, I stayed tuned to the postgame press conference of West Virginia coach Rich Rodriquez and almost could not bear to witness what he was going through. I don't know that I have ever seen a more disheartened look on a coach's face in my life as I saw in Coach Rod. He was so distraught that he was unable to focus on the questions being asked as his mind raced back over the events that had just transpired on the field. West Virginia was one game away from playing for the national championship. The Mountaineers were one simple slam-dunk victory against a 28-point underdog from having a chance to bring home their first national crown. But after a couple of missed field goals, a quarterback's dislocated thumb and a failed fourth-and-3 attempt, Almost Heaven quickly turned into a certain kind of hell.

As coaches tend to do, Rodriquez took the entire blame for this devastating loss upon himself. Unfortunately, there were more than a few Mountaineer fans who were all too eager to have him do just that.

Mickey Furfari, who has covered the Mountaineers for 61 years – over half their football playing existence – had this to say in the Charleston Daily Mail about West Virginia's loss:

There was more riding on that 13-9 loss to rival Pitt on Saturday night than any other contest in WVU's 114 years of football. … I know there could have been a crushing collapse here and there over the years. But it most certainly couldn't have been a proven powerful team with so much at stake for itself, the university and the Mountain State.

That's a pretty heavy burden to put on any one man's shoulders.

As I tried to put Rodriquez's press conference out of my mind, my thoughts kept drifting back to 1970 and an earlier matchup in this Backyard Brawl. It was the final game of the season in my father's first year as the head coach at West Virginia. I was 14 years old and the proud son of the No.1 football coach in the state of West Virginia.

Dad was up 35-8 at halftime in an era when a 27-point lead might as well be 100. Pitt was desperate to keep the game close and put in double tight ends and a full house backfield at halftime and decided to run the ball on every play to keep the clock running and the score from getting more out of hand. They also decided to go for it on every fourth down to keep West Virginia from getting the ball back. Well, those huge sons of steel mill workers from western Pennsylvania were soon pounding the heck out of the smaller, faster Mountaineers. Slowly, and quite unexpectedly, they began to claw their way back into the game. In the second half, Pittsburgh made every single fourth-down conversion. The Panthers scored their final touchdown with seconds left on the clock to achieve an unbelievable 36-35 comeback victory. For West Virginia and its young head coach, Bobby Bowden, it was the most humiliating defeat ever suffered in the long, bitter rivalry.

The Mountaineer fans who were in attendance that day in Pittsburgh felt humiliated. They were stunned and they were embarrassed. I remember seeing my father spit upon as he walked dejectedly out of the tunnel.

It was the low-point of his coaching career. If you were to ask him today what was the worst loss he has ever experienced in his 50-odd years of coaching he would still say … 1970, Pitt/West Virginia, 36-35.

If you took a snapshot of my father's coaching career on that day to represent his entire life's work, he would have been labeled a failure, a terrible coach. But after almost 40 more years he has accumulated two national championships, a current total of 373 wins and the record as the winningest coach in Division 1-A history. He is enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame and has meant more to Florida State University than any other single man in school history. He has been the guiding force for thousands of young men who have gone on to be great football players, great citizens and great fathers. But on that dreary day back in the fall of 1970 he was a failure, unworthy to be called the Mountaineer coach.

Well, the current Mountaineer coach is carrying an even bigger burden today. He probably feels like he let down his players, friends, family and fellow West "by God" Virginians. Rich Rodriguez is a great coach. He loves the Mountaineers. As a WVU and football letterman, I think he will one day end up as the greatest coach ever in the history of West Virginia University. The memory of this game will fade over time and will be overshadowed by championships instead.

Mountaineer fans need to rally behind our coach right now – we need to hug his neck and tell him how much we appreciate what he has done and is still doing for our football program. This one game will not define Coach Rod's career. But the way we West Virginia fans respond to this gut-wrenching loss will define our true spirit.

Make no mistake though, Rich will never forget this loss – just ask my dad.

This article appeared on the Yahoo Sports website on Monday, December 3, 2007.