Penn State wasn’t the only team from Pennsylvania kicking off the new season on Thursday night. The Pitt Panthers, the defending ACC champions, were also getting started with a home game against another of Pitt’s long-time historical rivals, West Virginia. And like Penn State, Pitt came out on top of a thriller.
The scene was electric in Pittsburgh as Pitt and West Virginia met for the first Backyard Brawl since 2011 when conference realignment led Pitt from the Big East to the ACC and West Virginia to the Big 12. It was a long time coming for these two rivals to get back on the field, and Thursday night officially made West Virginia Pitt’s most-played opponent. The 94th game in the series with the Mountaineers surpassed Pitt’s 93 all-time meetings with Penn State.
The game drew some comparisons for Pitt to the 2016 renewal of the in-state rivalry with Penn State. Much like Thursday night’s revival of the Backyard Brawl, Pitt celebrated a close win against its long-time foes.
After the game, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was asked to compare the atmosphere for the game to that 2016 meeting with Penn State, and Narduzzi took the opportunity to once again say he is ready to go head-to-head with Penn State once again.
“You know, they are both big-time rivalries,” Narduzzi said of the two rivalries with Penn State and West Virginia. “We’ll play Penn State any time they want to. We’ll play West Virginia. We have West Virginia for another seven games. We are excited about that.”
Penn State and Pitt played a four-game series that ran from 2016 through 2019. After losing the first game in the four-game scheduling agreement, Penn State won the next three.
Given the future nonconference scheduling plans, it is unlikely we see Penn State play Pitt again in the regular season any time soon. So we’ll just have to hold out for a possible postseason matchup to satisfy our in-state rivalry cravings.
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