Tag: WVU Mountaineers

Schedule the Backyard Brawl every year, you cowards

Pitt and WVU reminded us on Thursday night why rivalries need to be kept alive.

Week 1 of the 2022 college football season got off to an incredible start as fans were treated to the return of the Pitt-West Virginia rivalry. Affectionately dubbed the “Backyard Brawl,” the Mountaineers traveled into Heinz Acrisure Stadium to face the No. 17 Panthers. This ended an 11-year drought without the game and has led to everyone thinking the same question:

Why did we ever let this game stop happening?

The revival of the Brawl was everything you could possibly hope. High drama, high excitement and a thrilling finish that came down to the wire. Pitt escaped with the 38-31 victory after M.J. Devonshire picked off WVU’s J.T. Daniels for a 56-yard “Pitt Six.”

West Virginia made a valiant effort on the ensuing drive as Daniels’s final attempt fell incomplete after an incredible attempt by Reese Smith at the goal line.

While the game itself was a blast, it is more that the Backyard Brawl is everything that’s awesome about college football.

It’s Kedon Slovis, QB for Pitt (and USC transfer), yelling expletives about West Virginia at a pre-game pep rally. It’s Bryce Ford-Wheaton being the third generation to play for the Mountaineers in a Backyard Brawl. It’s signs in Heinz Acrisure that remind Mountaineer fans about the time Pitt ruined its shot at a title with a 13-9 upset. It’s the electric atmosphere.

All of it was perfect (sorry, West Virginia fans). Regional rivalries and unbridled anger fuel college football, and we should get this every year. Same with other faded rivalries like Texas-Texas A&M, Miami-Florida and more.

We will get three more years of the Brawl (before a three-year layoff), but that’s not good enough. We want it every year.

Make it happen.

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SEC expansion, what about the rest of the Big 12 Conference?

Predicting where the other eight schools could land if the Oklahoma Sooners and Texas Longhorns head to the SEC.

On Wednesday a report surfaced that pointed to the Oklahoma Sooners looking to jump ship to the SEC. That shook the college football landscape and for good reason.

Not only is Oklahoma looking at a change but it appears their biggest rivals, the Texas Longhorns, are right there alongside them. The Big 12 Conference’s top two teams are looking to exit stage left, which means the conference would need to find replacements, or would they?

According to former Texas Tech quarterback B.J. Symons, he doesn’t think there are any suitable replacements.

He did add to his original tweet stating that they could add teams but it wouldn’t mean much given the revenue and power that Texas and Oklahoma add.

As stated in my original report on the Oklahoma/Texas jump to the SEC Conference, it is unlikely that the Big 12 Conference could survive this latest purge of the teams.

The Big 12 Conference would likely dissolve leaving eight programs up for grabs. – Report on OU and UT to the SEC

We pull out our crystal ball to predict just where the other eight schools might land.