I feel like I am still playing catch-up with everything this week. The cost of starting the week very slowly. So, I’m almost to the point of just clearing out the tabs from my browser windows.
You have to love the synergy of a company owning papers in two different states. It allows them to use one reporter to cover the story then package accordingly. Take Community Newspapers Holdings, Inc. They own papers in Johnstown, PA and Beckley, WV. So regarding the Backyard Brawl, the same reporter does a story for each paper. The Pitt story is the already stock story about Coach Wannstedt knowing all perspectives of the BB as a player, fan and coach. The WV story also goes with the coach angle.
Rich Rodriguez isn’t concerned about West Virginia’s football team getting charged up for its annual battle with Pitt.
“As a coach, you’ve got to be careful not to put too much emphasis on one game,” he said. “Our guys hear it all the time (about Pitt), 365 days a year.
“I worry more about (how we’ll play) in games against a Cincinnati or Connecticut. Our guys know Pitt-WVU is going to be a very intense game every year.
“You just want them to go execute. They understand the rivalry, even our young guys. They know it’s a huge game for us.
“We want to win the Big East championship. So it’s critical. But we just want to win this game. I do just because I like to beat Pitt.
“You don’t have to mention it to our guys. For this game, I’m probably going to have to calm them down — tell them to relax a bit.”
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Rodriguez pointed out that the ancient adversaries have split the last eight meetings. That was after WVU had won five in a row for its longest run in the series.Pitt leads the all-time rivalry by a 59-35-3 margin. But the series for the last 50 years stands even at 24-24-2.
“Everyone will say what to expect, but it really doesn’t always come out that way,” he said. “I’ve found that Pitt-WVU in itself is enough motivation for both programs.”
Then, of course, are the player stories. Especially the Western PA kids who found themselves forced to settle for the being a Hoopie. It tends to eat at them. Of course, it has lately seemed to come back and bite Pitt on the ass but that’s another issue.
West Virginia wide receiver Vaughn Rivers didn’t have to drive far to fulfill a dream of playing in the “Backyard Brawl.”
Rivers, a Perry graduate, is one of five former WPIAL players who could play significant roles when the No. 13 Mountaineers (8-1, 5-0) host the improving Pitt Panthers (5-5, 4-2) Thanksgiving night in one of the nation’s longest running rivalries.
The Panthers passed up the chance to recruit Rivers, and he never forgot it.
“I don’t hate them, but I don’t like them,” Rivers said Tuesday following practice at Milan Puskar Stadium.
Other WPIAL standouts who made the hour drive south on Interstate 79 to join the Mountaineers’ starting lineup include linebacker Kevin McLee of Uniontown, center Dan Mozes of Washington, safety Eric Wicks of Perry and kicker Pat McAfee of Plum.
No. Not bitter about Pitt not recruiting him.
LaRod Stephens-Howling holds a grudge against the Hoopies and every other team that stopped recruiting him because they thought he was too small and couldn’t take the hits.
“They told me he was too small to play there,” Greater Johnstown coach Bob Arcurio said. “I told LaRod that, and he said, ‘Wait and see. Wait until Pitt plays ’em.'”
West Virginia wasn’t the only school that didn’t want to take a chance on an economy-sized (5-foot-7, 165 pounds) running back.
“All those phone calls to my high school coach still stick with me,” Stephens-Howling said. “I remember those teams.”
During the week leading up to the game, Coach Wannstedt is bringing in former players to talk to the freshmen about the rivalry. One of the first players was Rod Rutherford. At the same time, Coach Wannstedt is trying to keep things in check.
“There’s as much energy as we want to create right now. We’ve just got to make sure that we pace ourselves,” said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, who had arrived back in town Tuesday after a Florida recruiting trip this week.
The game against conference-leading West Virginia (8-1, 5-0) — Pitt’s last of the regular season — is expected to be played in a raucious atmosphere at Morgantown’s Mountaineer Field, where Pitt dropped a 52-31 decision in its most recent appearance in 2003.
It also will provide the Panthers with another national television game (8 p.m., Nov. 24, ESPN).
Yet, knowing all of that, Wannstedt insisted his players and staff will harness their emotions.
“If we had 10 wins right now or no wins, I don’t know if we’d approach it any differently,” Wannstedt said. “It’s West Virginia. It’s an important game. It’s national TV. It’s a conference game. It’s our biggest rival. There’s enough reasons to be motivated for this one.”
Yes there are.
