Since I couldn’t make the roadie, I have time to prepare a final roundup. Don’t worry, though, Pat, John and Lee will be there to represent in the Pitt cheering section — somewhere in Section 121 of Mountaineer Stadium (aka, The Big Pile of Cement paid for with federal money via Senator Robert “I was a member of the KKK, but it was just a social club” Byrd).

Mark Madden says that Pitt closed practices to try and hide the return of RB Brandon Miree, but it hasn’t fooled anyone (except, apparently all of the newspapers in Pittsburgh and West Virginia who haven’t even reported a rumor of it).

Looks like all of the papers have waited until today to run their pieces on how much the game means to players and fans. Now there is some good stuff to get the blood flowing.

Pitt senior tight end Kris Wilson stood quietly in the middle of Heinz Field last fall, observing the dances and the celebrations, the high-fives and the hugs.

His stomach twisted in knots.

There he was, in his house — on his turf — watching the West Virginia football team frolic after a 24-17 victory in front of a record-setting pro-Panthers crowd.
…
“This is crazy for me, because I finally realized what it meant to play against — and lose — to West Virginia,” said Wilson, a native of Lancaster. “It was just a rotten feeling. I’m not even from this area and I didn’t grow up knowing about the Backyard Brawl, but for some reason, when I was leaving that field, I felt worse than I did after any loss in my career. I don’t know why it came over me like that, but it did, and I can’t forget it.”

Yeah, that’s what I want to read. Pitt seems to be drawing upon the sight of watching the Hoopies celebrate on Heinz Field last year. And the celebration rankled some sensibilities.

[Walt Harris] also had an intense disposition during interview sessions all week.

“I try not to have the bitterness that you’re supposed to have about the University of Pittsburgh and West Virginia — that’s one drawback, maybe, about not being a Pittsburgh guy,” said Harris, whose team must avoid an emotional letdown after upsetting Virginia Tech last week at Heinz Field. “But I saw what happened on the field last year when we got beat. I saw the demonstration.”

Both sides getting juiced.

West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez gathered his players before the end of Wednesday’s practice, at Mountaineer Field, and asked them to take a knee.

He instructed them to close their eyes and picture what the sold-out stadium would look like before tonight’s Backyard Brawl with the No. 16 Pitt Panthers.

He wanted the players to imagine what it would feel like to run through the inflated, smoking WVU helmet.

By the time this visualization exercise was over, Rodriguez could clearly see the smiles on his players’ faces.

The fans are ready down in Morgantown.

“That the road to the Big East title goes through Morgantown … down Don Nehlen Drive,” Headley said. “And if Walt Harris and Pitt don’t already know that, well, I think they’ll notice on their way to Mountaineer Field.”

Headley, a 23-year-old law student at West Virginia University, doesn’t mix words concerning his feelings for Harris and Pitt: “I don’t like him, and I hate them.”
…
“There isn’t any love lost,” Headley said. “Anticipation for this game is higher than it was for Virginia Tech a few weeks back.”

And that’s saying something.

Prior to West Virginia’s upset of then third-ranked Virginia Tech on Oct. 22, Headley and his three housemates entertained about 300 fellow Mountaineers in their front yard — likely the only front yard in college football with its own nickname, Tailgate Central, and Web site, www.tailgatecentral.com.

That Headley and roomies, Andy Hill and Thomas Ryan, live at 954 Irwin Street, which faces Don Nehlen Dr., the road busses carrying Pitt must travel if the Panthers intend on showing up for kickoff, is no small coincidence.
…
The partiers at Tailgate Central — mostly WVU students, identifiable by T-shirts that on the front read “Tailgate Central” and on the back display a map of West Virginia breaking up the words “Old School” and “Tailgating” — have at least two fans with stroke in their back pockets: Rodriguez and school president David Hardesty.

“I guess so,” Headley says. “Coach Rodriguez has shown up the Friday night before a game with pizzas, thanking us for the support. And, president Hardesty has stopped on his way to the game.”

The link to the site, though, says it’s under construction.

Of course the main storyline is still that a BCS bid for the either school is the major component of this game.

The very notion that the Panthers might still be on a high from last weekend’s win is laughable to Pitt coach Walt Harris, who succinctly summed up the importance of the rivalry.

“This is the Backyard Brawl. This is the all-time rivalry for this university,” Harris said. “We got beat by them last year in front of the largest crowd ever in the history of Heinz Field. We know what it’s like to not take care of business. Need I say any more?”

In a piece of actual game analysis, a WV writer figures it out: WVU needs to run the ball. Hmm. I think I’ve read something like that once or twice before.

Finally, some individual profile pieces. One on Walt Harris, and what people think about the job he’s done and into the future (complete puff piece).

The others regard Pitt’s stud WR, Larry Fitzgerald. One is a piece from a WV columnist designed to strike fear into the Hoopiefaithfull as to how good he is. The other concerns issues of what Larry’s father said to the NY Times about Fitzgerald considering trying to get an exemption for the 2004 NFL draft.Shortt answer: he’s not thinking about that right now.

Game time is less than 7 hours away.

Let’s go Pitt!