Game Preview: West Virginia football at Pittsburgh

West Virginia will renew its most long-standing rivalry with the return of the Backyard Brawl. In the first meeting since 2011, the Mountaineers will make the roughly 75-mile trip north up I-79 to take on Pittsburgh in the Thursday night primetime contest.

WVSports.com dives into numbers and notes, a depth chart and where you can watch the contest among other items in this game preview.

Series: Pittsburgh 60-41-3

Last meeting: 2011 WVU 21 Pitt 20

Television: 7p.m., ESPN, Matt Barrie (PBP), Louis Riddick (analyst) Harry Lyles Jr. (sideline)

NUMBERS AND NOTES:

--Neal Brown is in his fourth season atop the West Virginia football program with a record of 17-18. Overall, Brown has a 52-34 record as a head coach.

--West Virginia is 15th all-time in wins.

--The Mountaineers are 5-1 in games played on Sept. 1, including 1-1 in games played away from home. The last time WVU played on that date was in 2018 vs. Tennessee in Charlotte (W 40-14).

--This will be the 105th meeting between West Virginia and Pittsburgh but the first between the two current head coaches of each team. The second longest rivalry game is Syracuse with 60 total contests between the two.

--Since 1963, WVU has posted a 25-22-2 mark in the Backyard Brawl. The 1963 contest marked the start of the series being played on a home and-home basis. The Mountaineers are 16-8-1 in the last 25 games in the series.

--Pittsburgh leads 40-22 at home in the series.

--West Virginia is 91-34-4 all-time in season openers (17-5 since 2000/31-10-1 since 1980). The program is 64-59-2 in road openers, including 19-14-1 when WVU opened its season on the road.

--The Mountaineers are 37-32-3 in games played on Thursdays, 13-12 in games played on Thursday nights and 11-8 in games played on ESPN on Thursday night. WVU has won 10 of the last 14 games played on ESPN on Thursday night and 11 of the last 16 games played on Thursday night.

--The Mountaineers are 94-14 since 2002 when winning the turnover battle.

--West Virginia is 152-175-6 all-time against current members of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

--This will represent the 298th nationally televised game for West Virginia. All-time, the Mountaineers are 155-141-1 in nationally televised games.

--Coaching staff assignments: Matt Moore (AHC-OL/Field); Graham Harrell (OC-QB/Press Box); Chad Scott (Run Game Coord.-RB/Field); Jordan Lesley (DC-OLB/Field); ShaDon Brown (Co-DC-DBs/Field); Jeff Koonz (ST Coordinator-ILB/Field); Andrew Jackson (DL/Press Box); Sean Reagan (TE/Press Box); Tony Washington (WR/Field); Dontae Wright (S/Press Box).

--West Virginia has gone to a bowl game in 18 of the last 20 years. The Mountaineers are one of 15 Power 5 schools to accomplish that feat: Georgia (20), Oklahoma (20), Wisconsin (20), Clemson (19), Florida (19), LSU (19), Ohio State (19), Oklaho- ma State (19), Virginia Tech (19), Alabama (18), Auburn (18), Florida State (18), Iowa (18), Ore- gon (18) and West Virginia (18).

--Since 1980, West Virginia is 205-22-1 when scoring 30 or more points in a game. Since 2000, the Mountaineers are 65-6 when hitting the 40-point plateau, and WVU is 195-6 all-time when scoring 40 or more points in a game.

--Over the last eight years, West Virginia has produced 140 takeaways, tied for No. 37 nationally and tied for No. 19 among Power 5 schools.

--The 2022 roster currently consists of 121 players from 25 different states, Washington D.C. (1) and five foreign countries: Australia (1), Finland (1), Germany (1), Sweden (1) and The Netherlands (1). Leading the way is West Virginia (23), Ohio (13), Florida (11), Pennsylvania (11), Maryland (10), Georgia (6), Alabama (4), New Jersey (4), North Carolina (4), Kentucky (3), Missouri (3), Texas (3), Delaware (2), Illinois (2), Indiana (2), Michigan (2), New York (2), South Carolina (2), Virginia (2), Arizona (1), California (1), Kansas (1), Louisiana (1), Massachusetts (1), Mississippi (1).

DEPTH CHART:

OFFENSE:

QB: 18 JT Daniels, 6-2, 226, Jr.
7 Will Crowder, 6-2, 220, r-Fr. -or-
8 Nicco Marchiol, 6-1, 208, Fr. -or-
6 Garrett Greene, 5-11, 200, r-So.

RB: 24 Tony Mathis, 5-11, 207, r-So.
26 Justin Johnson, 5-11, 198, So.

WR (X): 0 Bryce Ford-Wheaton, 6-3, 224, r-Jr.
11 Cortez Braham, 6-2, 198, Jr.

WR (Y): 13 Sam James, 6-0, 182, r-Jr.
29 Preston Fox, 5-10, 184, r-Fr.

WR (H): 15 Reese Smith, 5-10, 187, So.
89 Graeson Malashevich, 5-9, 186, r-So.

WR (Z): 3 Kaden Prather, 6-4, 211, So.
2 Jeremiah Aaron, 5-10, 186, So.

TE (H): 88 Brian Polendey, 6-4, 256, r-Sr. -or-
87 Mike O'Laughlin, 6-5, 255, r-Jr.

LT: 64 Wyatt Milum, 6-6, 307, So.
58 Nick Malone, 6-5, 300, r-So.

LG: 74 James Gmiter, 6-3, 310, r-Jr.
55 Tomas Rimac, 6-6, 312, r-Fr.

C: 54 Zach Frazier, 6-3, 306, So.
53 Jordan White, 6-2, 298, r-Fr.

RG: 72 Doug Nester, 6-7, 320, Jr.
53 Jordan White, 6-2, 298, r-Fr.

RT: 50 Brandon Yates, 6-4, 308, r-So. -or-
66 Ja'Quay Hubbard, 6-5, 318, r-So.

DEFENSE:

DT: 55 Dante Stills, 6-4, 290, Sr.
96 Edward Vesterinen, 6-3, 281, So.
52 Jalen Thornton, 6-2, 278, r-So.
99 Zeiqui Lawton, 6-1, 274, r-Fr.

NG: 95 Jordan Jefferson, 6-3, 310, Jr.
93 Mike Lockhart, 6-3, 317, r-So.

DE: 12 Taijh Alston, 6-4, 255, r-Sr.
91 Sean Martin, 6-5, 288, So.

BANDIT: 10 Jared Bartlett, 6-2, 235, r-So. -or-
44 Lanell Carr, 6-1, 245, So.

WLB: 5 Lance Dixon, 6-2, 220, r-So.
6 Exree Loe, 6-0, 214, r-Sr.

MLB: 8 Lee Kpogba, 6-1, 230, Jr.
18 Tirek Austin-Cave, 6-1, 228, So.
36 Caden Biser, 6-0, 226, r-Fr.

SPEAR: 27 Davis Mallinger, 6-1, 194, r-Fr. -or-
7 Jasir Cox, 6-1, 204, Sr.

FS: 2 Aubrey Burks, 5-11, 182, So.
13 Hershey McLaurin, 6-1, 210, So.

CS: 24 Marcis Floyd, 6-0, 194, r-Jr.
14 Malachi Ruffin, 5-10, 195, Jr.

LCB: 4 Rashad Ajayi, 5-11, 182, Sr. -or-
11 Wesley McCormick, 5-11, 200, Sr.

RCB: 9 Charles Woods, 5-11, 193, Sr.
20 Andrew Wilson-Lamp, 6-2, 178, r-Fr.

SPECIAL TEAMS:

K: 48 Casey Legg, 6-4, 216, r-Jr.
37 Parker Grothaus, 6-2, 216, r-Sr.

H: 89 Graeson Malashevich, 5-9, 186, r-So.

P: 40 Kolten McGhee, 6-0, 187, r-So. -or-
41 Oliver Straw, 6-2, 214, Fr.

KO: 37 Parker Grothaus, 6-2, 216, r-Sr.
39 Danny King, 5-10, 172, r-Fr.

LS: 43 Austin Brinkman, 6-3, 215, r-Fr.

KOR: 13 Sam James, 6-0, 182, r-Jr.
27 Davis Mallinger, 6-1, 184, r-Fr.

PR: 13 Sam James, 6-0, 182, r-Jr.
15 Reese Smith, 5-10, 187, So. -or-
29 Preston Fox, 5-10, 184, r-Fr.

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