By John Antonik for MSNsportsNET.com
November 18, 2005

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There are many outstanding West Virginia-Pitt games that have been played throughout the years that have added to the lore of a series that is today simply known as the “Backyard Brawl.”

	Linebacker Darryl Talley showcased his considerable talents before an ABC television audience during the 1982 West Virginia-Pitt game in Pittsburgh. WVU Sports Communications

The few old, old timers that are still around remember a West Virginia win over Pitt in 1922 when Armin Mahrt dropped-kicked the winning field goal from 39 yards. A 1947 WVU victory was memorable to West Virginians mostly because it snapped Pitt’s 15-game winning streak that spanned 19 seasons.

Panther supporters point with great pride to Pitt’s 26-7 upset of West Virginia in 1955 that knocked the Mountaineers out of contention for the Sugar Bowl. The underdog Panthers completely dominated a game West Virginia expected to win.

West Virginia’s victory at Pitt in 1961 became known as the “Garbage Game” because one of the Panther players referred to West Virginia (winless in 1960) rebuilding its program with “Western Pa garbage.” Pittsburgh turned the tables two years later in 1963 when Pitt’s Paul Martha, the brother of West Virginia’s Richie Martha, ran 46 yards for a late touchdown to beat the Mountaineers 13-10 in Morgantown.

West Virginia’s 63-48 victory over Pitt in 1965 set eight school records in a game that saw each team score almost a point-and-a-half for every minute of action. Bobby Bowden still groans when anyone brings up West Virginia’s colossal collapse at Pitt in 1970 when his team took a 35-8 lead into the locker room at halftime and wound up losing the game 36-35.

“That is still my darkest day in coaching,” says Bowden, later claiming he could have been physically harmed by irate West Virginia supporters had he not kept his team in the locker room for an extra hour to give the craziest of the crazies enough time to disperse.

Bowden got a small measure of revenge in 1975 when West Virginia beat the nationally ranked Panthers on Bill McKenzie’s last-second field goal in Morgantown. Pitt overcame a large third-quarter deficit in 1989 to tie West Virginia 31-all in an unforgettable battle of two top-10 teams.

Pitt made another big comeback against West Virginia in 1994, finally taking the lead 41-40 with 38 seconds left in the game. But moments later you could see the blood drain right out of Coach Johnny Majors’ face when he watched West Virginia quarterback Chad Johnston lob a long pass downfield to Zach Abraham for a 60-yard touchdown that decided one of the wildest games in the history of the “Backyard Brawl.”

And just as there have been some really memorable games in this series, there have also been those moments when you felt like someone had tossed a dead cat into the punch bowl. Like the game in 1957 when West Virginia and Pitt combined for 11 fumbles in a 7-6 Mountaineer victory. The difference turned out to be Whitey Mikanik’s PAT.

Speaking of kicks, Bethel Park’s Ken Juskowich made five of them for WVU in a 15-0 belly-flopper of a game in Morgantown in 1967. West Virginia was beginning to turn corner under Coach Jim Carlen, but yet it still couldn’t cross the goal line against a woeful Pitt team that won just one game that year.

Pitt’s 6-3 victory in 1987 set offensive football back at least 50 years. Both teams combined to punt the ball 15 times and Pitt’s drive that led to Jeff VanHorne’s winning 40-yard field goal went backwards three yards. Of course West Virginia’s exciting 47-41 come-from-behind victory in 1994 can be viewed two ways -- either great offense or atrocious defense depending upon which side of the scoreboard your team was on.

Yet for my money the single greatest game of the 110-year history of the “Backyard Brawl” came in 1982 in Pittsburgh. This game had a little bit of everything: Two nationally ranked teams playing in a contest that had national implications with major-league players on both sides of the field laying it on the line in a cliffhanger-of-a-game that wasn’t decided until the final play. How's that for a mouthful?

If you recall, Pitt was it in the early 1980s. The Panthers had won a national title under Majors in 1976 and were consistently ranked in the top 10 under Coach Jackie Sherrill, his 1980 team going 11-1 and getting squeezed out of the national championship game by Notre Dame.

	West Virginia coach Don Nehlen, pictured here at the College Football Hall of Fame announcement ceremonies earlier this summer, said the Pitt teams of the early 1980s were immensely talented. AP photo

Sherrill left for Texas A&M in 1982 and handed the program over to long-time assistant Foge Fazio, who instantly presided over a team that featured Dan Marino at quarterback, an offensive line made up of Jimbo Covert, Jim Sweeney and Bill Fralic, skill players that included Julius Dawkins, Dwight Collins, Bryan Thomas and Marlon McIntyre, and a defense that had Bill Maas, Chris Doleman and Tim Lewis.

“We didn’t have near the players that they did,” recalled West Virginia coach Don Nehlen. “Probably 30 percent of that team wound up in the NFL. It was amazing.”

By 1982, West Virginia wasn’t too shabby either. Nehlen had taken over a Mountaineer program that had endured four straight losing seasons from 1976-79 and according to some, was situated somewhere near the bottom of the college football world.

“When I came here some of my colleagues told me I was crazy,” Nehlen remembered. “This place was pretty run down with no facilities or anything. Every single kid I had inherited had never played on a winning team. But they wanted to win and anything I said they just bought.”

Nehlen led the Mountaineers to a Peach Bowl victory over Florida in 1981 and nine months later, opened the ’82 campaign with a stunning road win at Oklahoma. West Virginia followed that great victory with a tight, 19-18 triumph over Maryland to jump to No. 14 in the national rankings.

Pitt, meanwhile, started the '82 season by knocking off three straight nationally ranked teams in North Carolina, Florida State and Illinois to reach No. 1 in UPI poll and No. 2 in the AP poll. West Virginia was Pitt’s fourth-straight nationally ranked opponent to start the year.

“People don’t realize what a tough schedule we had that year,” said Fazio.

Even though Pitt supporters weren’t necessarily concerned, Fazio knew he was going to have his hands full with a hungry West Virginia team just dying to upset Pitt.

“It was kind of difficult getting everyone focused that year on West Virginia because we were heavily favored to win,” said Fazio. “They were a heck of a football team and they just quietly made their statement on the field.”

Like Pitt, West Virginia had its own collection of star players that went on to have success in the NFL. Quarterback Jeff Hostetler led an offense that also had fullback Ron Wolfley and wide receiver Willie Drewery. The defense showcased the outstanding all-around talents of linebacker Darryl Talley. Even then the Cleveland native could sense West Virginia closing the talent gap on Pitt.

“There were a lot of kids from Pennsylvania playing at West Virginia,” he said. “Some other kids from Ohio were coming down. We were getting kids from New Jersey and the Michigan area. Guys were realizing that we were not bad and that it wasn’t that far away.”

The Pitt game was really the first time the country had an opportunity to see what a wonderful all-around player Talley was. Not only was he outstanding at rushing the quarterback and making tackles behind the line of scrimmage, but Talley was also asked to cover wide receivers in the slot and backs coming out of the backfield. In the '82 Pitt game he wound up intercepting a pass that led to a Paul Woodside field goal and blocking a punt that he recovered in Pitt’s end zone for West Virginia’s only touchdown of the game. Talley’s score gave West Virginia a 13-0 lead to begin the fourth quarter.

“That game was on television and it was probably the first time in a long time that a West Virginia player was named Chevrolet player of the game,” Talley said. “That got me on the map and got me on everybody’s radar screens.”

Yet right after Talley’s score, the guy that was already on everyone’s radar screens – Pitt quarterback Dan Marino – was about to take matters into his own hands. He led Pitt on its best drive of the game, covering 83 yards in nine plays. Fazio remembers there being no panic on the Pitt sidelines when West Virginia went up 13.

	Fazio

“We had a real good defensive team and I remember the guys on the sidelines kept saying, ‘Come on keep hanging in there. Don’t let them score. We’re going to come back.’”

“I remember the fourth quarter Marino hit three or four great passes on us,” Nehlen said. “They were that 12-to-15-yard curl. We were playing what we called a ‘tough coverage’ where we took Talley and put him out on the split end and over-shifted to try and stop their passing game.”

“Danny just got hot,” Fazio added.

The key moment of the game came with West Virginia driving midway through the fourth quarter. A pair of Hostetler scrambles moved the football to the West Virginia 45 yard line. But starting center Dave Johnson got hurt on Hostletler’s second scramble and the Mountaineers had to bring in backup guard Billy Legg, who was suffering from a knee injury sustained the week before against Richmond. As fate would have it, Legg’s very first snap was bobbled by Hostetler and Pitt recovered the football at the West Virginia 48.

Marino fired a 16-yard pass to Dwight Collins on third and five to keep the sticks moving, and then found tight end John Brown open for 14 yards down to the WVU eight. Two plays later Marino hit Dawkins on a quick slant for a six-yard touchdown. The PAT gave Pitt a 14-13 lead with 3:23 left in the game. It was the only time Marino had ever led a fourth-quarter comeback during the regular season in his Pitt career.

“We got into a rhythm and once you get into a rhythm you can run the ball a little bit and with Danny throwing the ball, you can keep them off balance,” said Fazio.

After an exchange of possessions, West Virginia took over at its own 5 with 59 seconds left. Following two incomplete passes, Hostetler was sacked by Maas in the end zone for a safety to boost Pitt’s lead to 16-13 with just 41 seconds remaining.

“Jeff just got killed in that game,” said Nehlen. “My left tackle had a real tough time trying to block Doleman and Maas. We didn’t stack up with them but our kids just laid it on the line. It was amazing the way those kids played.”

With nothing to lose and still within a field goal of tying the No. 1-ranked team in the country, Nehlen went for an onside kick that Woodside executed perfectly. Woodside recovered the ball at the WVU 31. After a sack moved the ball back to the Mountaineer 21, Hostetler hit tight end Mark Raugh for 21 yards to the Pitt 42. Fifteen more yards were added on a roughing the passer penalty, placing the ball at the Pitt 44 with just seven seconds left on the clock.

Hostetler was able to get off one more pass to backup tight end Rob Bennett that moved the football eight yards closer to the Pitt 36 with just enough time left for a Woodside field goal. His 52-yard attempt landed inches below the cross bar.

“That kick … son of a gun I thought it was going through,” Nehlen said. “I fell right down to the ground to my knees when it hit the ground just below the cross bar.”

Talley’s most distinct memory of the game was once again falling short to Dan Marino. The two hooked up for many epic battles in the NFL when Marino was quarterbacking the Miami Dolphins and Talley was one of the leaders of the Buffalo Bills defense.

“That game is part of what drove me in the NFL because I had tried every way in the world to beat Dan Marino when he was at Pitt,” Talley said. “I had games where I had 25 tackles, blocked kicks, intercepted passes and I did everything I thought I could do: covered wide receivers and running backs … everything and I couldn’t do it. We just didn’t have enough horses to beat them.”

“It was a sensational football game,” Nehlen added. “It was such a hard-fought game. I remember it being such a beautiful fall day – just a gorgeous day in Pittsburgh.”

It was an especially gorgeous day for Pitt coach Foge Fazio, who today has a great deal of respect for what Don Nehlen built at West Virginia University.

“You had to beat them because they weren’t going to beat themselves,” Fazio said of Nehlen’s teams. “They weren’t going to turn the ball over, screw up on defense or get silly penalties. Some teams you know down the line that they were going to screw up – not Don’s teams.”

On that October afternoon back in 1982, Fazio’s Pitt team was able to beat Don Nehlen's West Virginia squad in what very well could be the finest "Backyard Brawl" game of them all.

Justin Zackal contributed to this story