At not getting to attend Pitt.
Yesterday I noted that one WVU player from Pittsburgh, Vaughn Rivers, seemed to be doing the most talking about being bitter Pitt didn’t recruit him. I wondered about his teammate they referred to, Eric Wicks, why he wasn’t complaining. Looks like I just needed to be a little patient. Today it’s Wick’s turn.
In his mind, Eric Wicks has a couple of scores to settle Thanksgiving night.
For one, there’s that personal thing with quarterback Tyler Palko being 3-0 in head-to-head competition.
In 1999, Palko steered West Allegheny past Wicks’ Perry Traditional Academy in the PIAA Class AAA semifinals, 31-14. In 2001, he did the same thing to Wicks’ then-undefeated mates, 28-14. Then, last Thanksgiving, with Wicks and West Virginia needing a victory to cinch the Big East title and a BCS berth, Palko willed Pitt to a 16-13 victory, completing four third-down passes in the drive before bulling the final 2 yards for the winning touchdown.
“He can talk all about those games,” Wicks said. “I’m trying to get him back in this game.”
Secondly, and most important to Wicks, there’s that Pitt 0, West Virginia 1 tally. That’s how many scholarships each school had available in 2003 for a certain defensive back from Beltzhoover and Perry.
“I wanted to go [to Pitt], but I didn’t really get recruited as far as them offering me a scholarship,” the junior strong safety said in advance of the Backyard Brawl between the 13th-ranked Mountaineers (8-1, 5-0) and Pitt (5-5, 4-2). “So I got a little grudge. A hard edge. It’ll help me play better.”
This has to have been a fun week for WVU fans. Keep reading all week long about how your team’s players wanted to go to Pitt, and had to settle on being a Mountaineer.
Well, Hoopies can take solace in the fact that their Center, Dan Mozes, seems to know not to express any grudge against Pitt for not recruiting him — and he’s the only one that I regret Pitt not pursuing given what an excellent offensive lineman he has been.
Although Mozes said his Washington neighborhood is split between West Virginia and Pitt fans, he tries to keep the “Backyard Brawl” in perspective.
“Naw, you never hate any team,” he said. “We still have another team (South Florida) to play after Pitt. But you can’t like any of your opponents, no matter who you play.”
He’s wrong. You can hate teams.
