Euphoric night ends well for Pitt, but now it’s time to fix what went wrong
After Pitt fans set aside the hate they have for West Virginia and wiped away those tears of joy triggered by the 38-31 victory, they should face the truth: There are issues that need to be addressed with this football team. The Backyard Brawl on Thursday night had the feel...
Penn State-Purdue tops Backyard Brawl in national TV ratings
Fox’s coverage of the Penn State-Purdue game drew bigger national television ratings than ESPN’s broadcast of the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia on Thursday night. According to showbuzzdaily.com, the Penn State-Purdue game drew 3.512 million viewers while the Pitt-West Virginia game drew 3.152 million viewers. The Pitt-West Virginia...
Top 5 biggest crowds in Pittsburgh sports history
Traffic tie-ups well before rush hour, tailgate parties springing up at many parking spots on the North Shore and a record crowd inside Acrisure Stadium made the renewal of the Backyard Brawl special. More so for victorious Pitt than West Virginia, considering that the Mountaineers led by seven deep into...
Pitt notebook: WVU coach Neal Brown defends 4th-quarter punt, would do it again
The game was sitting there for the West Virginia Mountaineers to secure in their travel bags, hit the country roads and return to Morgantown with a shocking upset. But Neal Brown decided to punt. With 6 minutes, 17 seconds left and WVU leading No. 17 Pitt, 31-24, on Thursday night...
Tim Benz: YAC drives comeback as Pitt passes first post-Pickett test
The image of Kenny Pickett was hovering over Pitt’s season opener Thursday night. Literally. During the first timeout against West Virginia, the former Heisman Trophy candidate was in one of Acrisure Stadium’s open-end rotundas, unfurling the team’s 2021 ACC title banner as a crowd of 70,622 wildly applauded. All new...
Pitt rallies late to secure 38-31 victory against West Virginia in Backyard BrawlVideo
Dave Wannstedt’s words carried across the room and into M.J. Devonshire’s head long before Pitt put a lock on what became an improbable Backyard Brawl victory, 38-31, against West Virginia. “He said it: ‘Somebody is always going to be legendary and it could be you,’ ” Devonshire said of the...
Before Brawl, Tony Dorsett lends a hand in Pitt’s recruiting efforts
The Pitt sideline at Acrisure Stadium was teeming with recruits and recruiters before the West Virginia-Pitt game Thursday night. One guy — an unofficial Pitt recruiter — stood out among the crowd. Tony Dorsett, who is Pitt’s only Heisman Trophy winner, was engaged in an animated conversation with Austintown Fitch...
ESPN’s Rece Davis, Desmond Howard relish college rivalries like the Backyard Brawl
Never more so than now has money been in the face of a casual college football fan. Of course, across collegiate athletics, dollar signs were always the straw that stirred the drink. But nowadays, the differences between the business models of college football and say, the NFL or NBA, have...
ACC preview: No. 4 Clemson aims for return to top of leagueVideo
Fourth-ranked Clemson is determined to follow a year of change with a return to the top of the
ACC. The Tigers saw their six-year run as champions snapped last year, then the Tigers lost coordinators on both sides of the ball to head-coaching jobs. Yet Dabo Swinney’s team is favored...
Veteran QBs have ACC set for season of big offensive totals
Devin Leary hasn’t forgotten lessons that came as a first-year starting quarterback struggling just to consistently complete passes, much less avoid turnovers and move North Carolina State’s offense. “I think one of the biggest things is pretty obvious,” the fifth-year QB said. “It’s hard to win games.” Things look much...
Backyard Brawl: Memories of 13-9 in ’07 with Pitt’s Chris McKillop — ‘We played a perfect game’
When it comes to Chris McKillop’s freshman year as a Pitt Panther, there is at least one aspect of coach Walt Harris’ daily practices that the defensive lineman will never forget. “Walt Harris had a ‘West Virginia’ period,” McKillop said during Wednesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “In an 18-period practice....
Pitt Take 5: Panthers vs. Mountaineers has the feel of a college reunion
The Backyard Brawl returns to Pittsburgh on Thursday night for the first time since 2010, and it almost sounds like a football game wrapped around a college reunion. Former Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt will address the current players at their pregame meal, and will share hugs and old stories with...
After 10 seasons without a Brawl, Pitt, WVU find natural rival right down the road
The night the Backyard Brawl faded away, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri was sacked 10 times in a 21-20 West Virginia victory in Morgantown. Panthers coach Todd Graham said the loss “devastated” him. That was Nov. 25, 2011. The schools separated by 75 miles of Interstate 79 haven’t met since. The...
Backyard Brawl: WVU players ‘recognize their legacy could be authored on Thursday night’
Jed Drenning knows how West Virginia football fans talk about the Backyard Brawl. He was a backup quarterback for the Mountaineers, and he has been part of their game-day broadcast crew for 20 years. Those games are spoken about in snapshots. In individual moments. In specific final scores. “Where were...
Dave Wannstedt eager to greet old Pitt pals, tell current players what Backyard Brawl means to him
The Backyard Brawl will be contested Thursday night at Acrisure Stadium, but its significance – and the game’s outcome – will resonate far beyond the North Shore. You’d have a hard time convincing Dave Wannstedt otherwise. The former Pitt player and head coach has been designated the Panthers’ honorary captain...
Pitt notebook: Izzy Abanikanda tops depth chart at running back
It’s only a two-letter word, but “or” speaks volumes when Pat Narduzzi places it next to a player’s name on the Pitt depth chart. It means no one has stepped forward to claim the starting job and the competition will continue. That said, it was a mild surprise when Narduzzi...
Pat Narduzzi calls on Dave Wannstedt to speak to Pitt’s players about Backyard Brawl
When Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi played at Rhode Island, the football team’s chief rival was Brown, an Ivy League school 30 miles to the north. “That was your big rivalry? Really?” he said, recalling his collegiate days Monday during the first of his weekly chats with reporters. He learned quickly...
Backyard Brawl breakdown: West Virginia’s top 5 wins in series vs. Pitt
With so much talk about the Backyard Brawl resonating up and down Interstate 79, you might wonder: Where did the name Backyard Brawl originate? Most people believe it wasn’t bestowed on what would become one of college football’s most passionate rivalries until the 1960s when the late Pittsburgh Press sports...
Pitt football preview: That pretty ACC championship trophy from 2021 means nothing in 2022
When Pat Narduzzi appeared on the ACC Network last week — somewhat of a celebrity after winning the conference championship nine months ago — Pitt’s coach said he planned to put a blanket over the 2021 conference championship trophy. “We’ll just focus on what we’re going to do this year,”...
Backyard Brawl breakdown: Pitt’s top 5 wins in the series vs. WVU
The football teams of Pitt and West Virginia started playing each other in 1895. The Mountaineers won the first three games by scores of 8-0, 6-0 and 6-5. They decided to keep playing, anyway. In 1904, after scoring a total of 29 points over six games, Pitt won 53-0, starting...
Pitt Take 5: Panthers hope Jared Wayne can make fans forget Jordan Addison
After losing a Heisman Trophy finalist and Biletnikoff winner, it’s only natural to expect some degree of regression in Pitt football. Kenny Pickett’s arm and leadership and Jordan Addison’s ability to make defensive backs look like they were standing still made it difficult to defend Pitt’s passing attack last season....
LeSean McCoy returns in time for the Backyard Brawl, but he has no extra tickets
The running back whose thick thighs, quick, nimble feet and broad back helped carry Pitt to its most historic upset victory returned to town Friday. LeSean “Shady” McCoy was the guest speaker at the Pitt Kickoff Luncheon, where 17 seniors sat at the head table while hundreds of fans filled...
Pitt’s Narduzzi draws on days at Rhode Island as 4 senior captains namedVideo
Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi on Friday named four of his most trusted seniors — Deslin Alexandre, SirVocea Dennis, Kedon Slovis and Carter Warren — as captains for the 2022 season. They were chosen by a vote of their teammates. Narduzzi believes all four will take the job seriously — just...
Ben Sauls replaces Sam Scarton as Pitt’s starting kicker
Pat Narduzzi usually is not a risk-taking coach. But he believes it’s no gamble changing kickers from Sam Scarton to Ben Sauls. After Scarton hit 17 of 21 field-goal attempts last season, Narduzzi on Friday said Sauls, a redshirt sophomore who handled the kickoff duties in 2021, also will kick...
Tim Benz: If Pittsburgh thinks Aaron Donald shouldn’t be suspended, then we are moving the goalposts
A brawl between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams erupted during a joint practice session Thursday. Rams star Aaron Donald was caught on film swinging a helmet at Bengals players before getting thrown to the ground. #Rams Aaron Donald used a #Bengals helmet to hit Cincy players after a...
