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Backyard Bawl: Determined Pitt gets last word
From the time Pitt left the field following a loss to South Florida to hours before taking the field, it heard the talk. The Panthers weren't good enough, fast enough or talented enough to stop West Virginia. The sounds festered inside for days. The emotions were finally unleashed Saturday night.
Pitt 13. West Virginia 9.
Even a rivalry as intense as the Backyard Brawl has never seen anything as unimaginable, surprising or title-killing as Pitt's stunning upset over West Virginia, the nation's No. 2 team. The same West Virginia that put up 66 points a week ago against Connecticut and the same Mountaineers who were playing for a spot in the BCS championship.
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After the game, the Mountaineer, his musket still in hand, dropped to a knee and cried.
Call the 100th meeting of these bitter rivals the Backyard Bawl.
"Nobody believed in us. We got the job done. Twenty-eight-point-and-a-half underdogs. Everybody said, 'If Pitt wins, it's because West Virginia didn't show up,'" said offensive lineman Mike McGlynn, a fifth-year senior who never experience a win as sweet. "They showed up and we showed up and we came out with the win.
"To Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, Mark May, everybody that doubted us, hey, we shocked the world today. It's the Backyard Brawl, - anything can happen."
Herbstreit, Corso and May, all members of ESPN's college football crew, were among the many who repeatedly reminded Pitt of its 4-7 record and propensity to allow big plays. The Panthers repeatedly heard that 10-1 West Virginia was simply too good.
The Panthers were sick of the talk.
"If we would have lost every game but we won this game, my senior season was a success," McGlynn said. "I mean that. We went out on a bang. We wanted to prove that we had a good football team. Some things didn't go our way this year but, hey, the number-one or number two football team, we came into their house, they're playing for the national championship, we got their best punch and they got ours."
Who knew Pitt punched so hard?
An unheralded defense, ranked 13th nationally, manhandled West Virginia.
The Mountaineers average 310 yards rushing and 475 total yards per game. Against a fast, determined Pitt defense, they looked pedestrian. There were season lows in first downs (12), rushing yards(104), total yards (183) and points (nine).
Pitt swarmed quarterbacks Pat White and Jarrett Brown, who played poorly for two quarters while White stood along the sidelines with a dislocated thumb. By the time White returned in the fourth quarter, the Mountaineers looked like a beaten team.
They were.
"The plan coming in was almost too simple," said Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt, who received a three-year contract extension earlier in the day. "Run the ball, use the clock, play great defense and create a couple turnovers. That's how it unfolded."
Pitt forced four fumbles, recovered three, blitzed relentlessly and had seven tackles for losses. LeSean McCoy rushed for 148 yards, or 114 more yards than fullback Owen Schmitt and tailbacks Noel Devine and the rapidly disappearing Steve Slaton had combined.
The script left Mountaineers fans stunned throughout most of the game. Afterward, other than a few vulgarities, they were left speechless. The national championship that has eluded this proud program would not be realized.
And, to double the pain, the hated rivals delivered the knockout blow.
"It was just a nightmare," West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez said. "The whole thing was a nightmare, just a flat-out nightmare."
Pitt only had to hear a week of talk. West Virginia will wait a month before it plays its next game.
Talk about torture.
"Throughout the whole week, the sportscasters just slaughtered us and picked us to lose," Panthers defensive tackle Tommie Duhart said. "It motivated a lot of people and we came out ready to play and ready to win."
Mike Kovak can be reached at mkovak@observer-reporter.com
