Saturday, Sept. 13
3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 p.m. Pacific
ESPN
The Backyard Brawl is back. Pitt and West Virginia continue their feud, one of the more delicious, entertaining, and generally underrated rivalries in college football. Alabama-Auburn and Michigan-Ohio State get all the attention late in the season. Other rivalries played on Thanksgiving weekend get a lot of eyeballs because they either have championship implications or are familiar in-state battles. Pitt-West Virginia is different because it is a two-state game and is played in September. Yet, it shouldn’t be overlooked.
Pittsburgh and West Virginia renew Backyard Brawl
Rich Rodriguez returns to the rivalry that broke his heart in 2007
This game is ferocious every time it is played. The entertainment value is substantial. These games are usually wild and dramatic. One can never forget a mediocre Pitt team coming into Morgantown and stunning No. 2 WVU 13-9 in 2007. The result knocked West Virginia out of the BCS National Championship Game and gave then-Mountaineer head coach Rich Rodriguez the worst loss of his career.
Guess who is back at WVU, coaching the Mountaineers again after more than 15 years away from the school? That’s right: RichRod. You know he aches to beat Pittsburgh in the worst way. Being at home in this game, Rodriguez will pull out all the stops in an attempt to engineer an upset. It’s a compelling backdrop to one of the more interesting games on the Week 3 docket.
Pitt Panthers-West Virginia Mountaineers Odds
Hear TJ Rives and Jason Powers break down this game on the 3Dog Thursday Podcast by clicking Play below:
Spread: Pitt -7 (-110), West Virginia +7 (-110)
Total: 57.5 (Over -105, Under -115)
Underdog moneyline: West Virginia +230
The West Virginia offense soared under Rich Rodriguez two years ago, but there’s no Pat White or Steve Slaton for the 2025 Mountaineers. They were bottled up last week in a loss to Ohio. The West Virginia defense played great and forced multiple turnovers while limiting Ohio to 17 points. On most days, that performance would win a game. Not last weekend. Injuries have pounded the West Virginia offense and left the unit shorthanded. Scoring just 10 points against a MAC opponent in spite of collecting multiple takeaways is a jarring indication of how limited the West Virginia offense currently is.
Pittsburgh is 2-0, having won a couple of cupcake games by large margins. The Panthers have done what they are supposed to do, but whether it means they are an upper-tier team – either on a national level or in the ACC – remains to be seen. Pitt, under coach Pat Narduzzi, has not been able to match the standard the 2021 Panthers set. That team, with Kenny Pickett at quarterback and Jordan Addison at receiver, won the ACC championship and played Michigan State in a New Year’s Six game, the Peach Bowl. Pitt has been a relatively ordinary program the past few years and needs to prove it can return to the top echelon of the ACC.
The play here is not a spread play. You would probably want to wait for a quarter or two to be played and see if you can get a more favorable line. If West Virginia gets a 7-0 lead, you might be able to get Pitt -3.5 in game. If Pitt goes up 10-0, you might be able to get WVU +14.5 or more.
The best play here is the under. WVU’s defense is good and its offense is limited. The game feels like a 20-17 streetfight, not a 31-30 game in which the offenses make plays.