On Saturday afternoon, West Virginia and Pitt will meet in the 107th edition of the Backyard Brawl.
Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke on Monday afternoon previewing Saturday's game with the Mountaineers along with what the rivalry means to him and his team.
Quick Thoughts on WVU
Narduzzi didn't go into a ton of detail on West Virginia as a team but gave a brief overview of what he sees in the Mountaineers.
"If you don’t know anything about rivalries this is the one. This is the one that people in Pittsburgh live for, people down south live for and they got a great football team," Narduzzi said.
Pitt is off to a 2-0 start to the season while WVU is 1-1, with their loss coming to Penn State in week one.
"Neal Brown is a heck of a football coach, he’s calling the plays. I think schematically he’s very similar to Satterfield last week I got a ton of respect for him as a football coach. As a scheme guy, he does really good stuff, he’s going to challenge you in all three phases of the game. They will be very multiple on defense, run a bunch of different fronts and coverages, none that we haven’t seen thus far," Narduzzi said.
What Players Stand Out?
Narduzzi mentioned multiple players on WVU's offense who stand out to him while also mentioning the newness of players on the West Virginia defense compared to what his team saw last season.
"They do a great job there and again, I think one thing to note when you think about who they are, they’ve got two games in obviously already like we do, they’ve got 11 transfers in the two-deep on defense. So they’ve got a lot of new guys over there that when I look at that they’re going to get better every week," Narduzzi said of WVU's defense.
Five players on WVU's defense who started this past week played in the Brawl in 2023, with there being a lot of fresh faces on that side of the ball for the Mountaineers.
On the flip side of things, Narduzzi and the Panthers will finally get a taste of WVU QB Garrett Greene who exited last year's game early in the first quarter with an ankle injury.
"Offensively, it all starts with the quarterback Garrett Greene. I think him and [CJ] Donaldson in the backfield with Jahiem White in the backfield as well, they like to run the ball, they’re going to throw RPOs, we’re going to see all that and they got really talented receivers out there. They’ve got deep ball guys, they’ve got intermediate guys, they’ve got guys that can make plays and we’ll see a bunch of RPOs, well see deep balls, we’ll see it all, we’re going to see everything they got," Narduzzi said.
Overall, Narduzzi expects the kitchen sink to be thrown at his team due to the nature of this game.
"You can throw every record out. They can be 0-2. we could be 0-2 it doesn’t matter this will be a knockdown drag-out battle at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday. They’ll be. ready, we’ll be ready and excite for it I know our team is excited for it," Narduzzi said.
What the rivalry means to Narduzzi
Narduzzi said he fully understands the scope of the Backyard Brawl for both Pitt and West Virginia fans. This will be his third matchup against the Mountaineers, as he is 1-1 with both games coming in the last two seasons.
"I think they know. I think we counted 73 players in this room were on that trip last year. We took everybody we could take. Obviously seniors graduated that weren’t in the room last night but we have 73 players that have been on that trip last year that were in that game. We probably got another 46 or 50 guys that were here in 2022 when we played them at home. We’re going to educate them on the rivalry and what it is," Narduzzi said.
Narduzzi added the best part about playing this game is that every year there is a new story to tell, a new chapter in this historic rivalry.
"I think every year there’s a different flavor. Like I said, I know from 2007 what a rivalry game was. Just with that game and knowing what’s on the line and the people you affect and the Pitt fans and the Pitt faithful and then the Panther Pitt, everybody that’s involved in that game, everybody is into it. I think every year it adds another flavor. There’s another scar that has to be repaired regardless of what it is. This game this weekend is why you play the game of football, is why you coach football," Narduzzi said.
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