Beer, batteries, middle fingers: Pitt braces for 'venom and poison' from hostile WVU crowd

As Pitt got its Tuesday morning practice underway at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, music blasting from multiple loudspeakers provided an instant reminder as to the Panthers’ challenge this weekend.

Not that anyone inside Pitt’s locker room had forgotten.

“(Coach Pat Narduzzi) has the speakers blaring with crowd noise, different chants that West Virginia does and then ‘Country Roads’ played about 15 times today during practice,” quarterback Eli Holstein said. “We’re going to be prepared for it. We’re going to do what we need to do to go out there and win the game.”

At 3:30 p.m. Saturday, the Panthers and Mountaineers meet at Milan Puskar Stadium for the 108th Backyard Brawl.

Holstein, who quarterbacked Pitt to a 38-34 win over WVU last year at Acrisure Stadium, is preparing for his first visit to Morgantown. As for what he can expect from the hostile, sellout crowd, Holstein is under zero illusions.

“It’s a hectic environment,” he said. “It’s going to be a lot of fun. There’s going to be little kids flipping me off, I’m going to get batteries and beer thrown at me on the sidelines, all types of stuff like that. But really excited and looking forward to feeding off that energy, feeding off the hate and the pure venom and poison from them. Really looking forward to it. Can’t wait to do it.”

Linebacker Braylan Lovelace will make his second trip to Morgantown, having been on hand for a deflating 17-6 loss to West Virginia in 2023.

Lovelace, a Leechburg graduate who grew up in the shadow of the rivalry’s history, appreciates the pressure and atmosphere that a stadium full of enemy fans can provide.

“It’s a great environment to go play in,” Lovelace said. “Environments like that — sold-out crowd, loud stadium — that’s something that, as a kid, you dream of playing. It’s something I’m very excited to experience. I loved it as a freshman, hearing the stadium roar when a play happens and then it goes silent when we come back and make a play.”

Anticipation for what Saturday will entail is shared by West Virginia.

The Mountaineers (1-1) are coming off a stinging road loss to Ohio of the Mid-American Conference last weekend, and they started slowly in Week 1 before blowing out Robert Morris at home.

Coach Rich Rodriguez, in the first year of his second stint, is excited to rekindle the rivalry he was a part of from 2001-07, when he led West Virginia to a 60-26 record.

Rodriguez, who departed Morgantown before the Mountaineers’ Fiesta Bowl appearance in 2007 to take over at Michigan, went 4-3 against Pitt.

“There’s a lot of intensity with it,” Rodriguez said. “There never seems to be any love lost between the fan bases. It’s always, to me, the biggest game on our schedule when you’re at West Virginia. I don’t know if Pitt would tell you that’s what they think, but I know from our standpoint, and from our fans’ standpoint, Pitt’s the biggest game we play.”

In a coaching career that dates to 1985, Rodriguez has been part of numerous rivalries, Michigan-Michigan State and Arizona-Arizona State in particular.

He doesn’t hesitate when speaking about which rivalry is the fiercest.

“I’ve told people everywhere I’ve been that I’ve been in a bunch of rivalries. There’s none that are more intense than this,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t know if it’s because the locations are so close or there’s been so many heated games in all sports against each other. It’s different.”

Added Mountaineers receiver Rodney Gallagher III, who played at Laurel Highlands:

“It kind of goes back to whenever I was a kid, watching this game on TV, knowing a little bit about it and coming to as many games as possible. But I was young, and I really didn’t understand it until I got here and played in it. This is the biggest game of the year. The fans care about it. We care about it. (Rodriguez) cares about it. … I’m very excited. We’ve just got to put our heads down and go to work.”

The game will mark Rodriguez’s return to the rivalry after the then-No. 2 Mountaineers’ disastrous home loss to Pitt on Dec. 1, 2007.

That 13-9 loss to the unranked Panthers, a game that has achieved immortality in Pitt circles, as well as being among the biggest upsets in college football history, denied West Virginia a shot at a national title.

Presumably because of West Virginia’s sluggish start to the year, Narduzzi’s Panthers are a seven-point favorite as of Tuesday, per Action Network.

That margin also takes into account West Virginia having lost starting tailback Jaheim White and receiver Jaden Bray to season-ending injuries against Ohio.

But for Narduzzi, injury talk, odds and the Mountaineers coming off a bad loss constitutes outside noise.

When his team takes the field Saturday, he’s expecting a battle.

“The one thing I say about a West Virginia football program is they will be tough and play with great effort,” Narduzzi said. “When you put the tape on, you’ll see them flying around. They’ll play hard. (Rodriguez has) got them playing hard, tough and physical. That’s what I see out of tape on them.”