Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi spoke on Monday about Neal Brown and West Virginia as he prepares for 2024’s Backyard Brawl this Saturday.
Brown and Narduzzi will face off for the third consecutive year in what will be the 107th all-time meeting between the two programs. The two head coaches have split the previous meeting, each achieving a win at home since the Brawl returned after over a decade-long hiatus due to the team’s going to different conferences.
“Really, really big rivalry game here and again, there’s maybe not many more important rivalry games in the country,” Narduzzi said. “If you don’t know anything about rivalries, this is the one. This is the one that people in Pittsburgh live for, people down south (in West Virginia) live for.”
Pitt and West Virginia’s first game dates back to 1895. After not playing since 2011, the return of the rivalry game in 2022 did not disappoint. The game went down to the wire, with the Panthers taking the 38-31 win at home, but West Virginia would bounce back at home the next year, last season, winning 17-6.
“They got a great football team. Neal Brown’s a heck of a football coach,” Narduzzi said. “I got a ton of respect for him as a football coach; as a scheme guy, he does really good stuff. They (WVU) will challenge you really in all three phases of the game.”
Narduzzi discussed what he expects from West Virginia defensively and noted new transfers on that side of the ball for WVU.
“They’ll be very multiple on defense running a bunch of different fronts and coverages, none that we haven’t seen thus far. We may even see some three safety stuff, who knows, but they do a great job there,” Narduzzi said. “I think one thing to note just when you think about who they are and they’ve got two games in obviously already like we do; they got 11 transfers into two deep on defense. So they’ve got a lot of new guys over there that I think when you look at that, they’re going to get better every week and and fit into their scheme.”
When discussing the Mountaineers’ offensive approach, Narduzzi recognized their rushing attack and overall offensive approach. He also spoke about their receiving corps, which he believes features different “talented” guys for different situations.
“It all starts with their quarterback, Garrett Greene. I think him and (CJ) Donaldson in the back backfield with Jahiem White in the backfield as well. I mean, they like to run the ball. They’re going to throw rpos (run-pass options). We’re going to see all that,” Narduzzi said. “And they got really, I think talented receivers out there. They got deep ball guys, they got intermediate guys, they got guys that can make plays. And we’ll see a bunch of rpos; we’ll see deep balls; we’re going to see it all; we’re going to see everything they got.”
Despite the team’s performances this season so far, Narduzzi is expecting a battle on the gridiron on Saturday. Like Brown said of his Mountaineer team, Narduzzi says his team is also excited for the matchup.
“You can throw every record out. We could be 0-2, they could be 0-2 it doesn’t matter. This will be a knockdown, drag-out battle at Acrisure Stadium on Saturday. And they’ll be ready, we’ll be ready and excited for it, I know our team’s excited for it,” Narduzzi said.
Saturday’s kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. EST and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
