A New Civility?
November 28, 2008 10:59 AM | General
In the days leading up to last year’s Backyard Brawl in Morgantown there was talk of a new civility in the century-old football series. Hatred was being replaced with humility - fans on both sides showing respect for one another in the name of competition. It was a thaw in the cold war … USA-Russia, Gorbachev-Reagan type stuff.
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| The West Virginia-Pitt Backyard Brawl reclaimed some of its intensity last year in Morgantown.
WVU Sports Communications photo |
These two heated rivals had recently joined together in the spirit of Edgar Snyder and self-preservation when the ACC tried to destroy the Big East Conference by first stealing Miami, and then Virginia Tech and Boston College.
Pitt, the school that helped sabotage Joe Paterno’s attempt at forming an Eastern all-sports conference in 1981, was finally coming around, joining arm-in-arm with its neighbors.
It was kumbaya for everyone when West Virginia beat Georgia in the Nokia Sugar Bowl, salvaging the Big East’s football reputation. It was kumbaya again in 2006 when Louisville and West Virginia enhanced the Big East’s status with more New Year’s bowl victories.
Meanwhile, those pesky Panthers 70 miles to the north were stewing. We later learned through investigative journalism that Pitt was putting up little reminders all over its football complex - benign mementos like “run faster” or “45-27” or “45-13.”
Dave Wannstedt most certainly saw that Fox Sports Pittsburgh special last year about the 100-year history of the Backyard Brawl and listened attentively when some of those former Mountaineer players prematurely talked about the “death knell” of the Panther program. He took notice of the implication being made on that special - that West Virginia’s football program under seventh-year coach Rich Rodriguez had passed his by.
Each day leading up to the game Wannstedt put on some old films from the Panther glory days and told some new stories.
Up in the press box before kickoff, Pitt radio play-by-play man Bill Hillgrove socialized with his Mountaineer friends just long enough to fill up his plate full of cookies. Then he barricaded the door to his radio booth. It was painful enough having to come down to Morgantown, let alone being forced to watch the Mountaineers’ BCS championship-game coronation come at the expense of his beloved Panthers.
Administrators, bowl scouts and other dignitaries were congratulating uneasy WVU administrators on a fabulous football season that was assuredly going to end in New Orleans in the big game against Ohio State.
It was not IF West Virginia beat Pitt, but when.
And then something funny happened. Twenty-eight-point underdog Pitt served up a giant Primanti sandwich to West Virginia. They shoved the thing right down the Mountaineers’ throats - plate, fork, knife and all.
After the game, the Pitt players got jiggy wit it on West Virginia’s field.
A jubilant Dave Wannstedt talked about how his players overcame great danger - his imperiled team bus threatened by a bunch of crazed hillbillies and their wild friends Jim Beam, Jack Daniels and Bud Weiser – to come out victorious in Morgantown. Douglas MacArthur couldn’t have been more convincing.
His soon-to-be ex-defensive coordinator Paul Rhodes graciously agreed to sit down with a Pittsburgh columnist to dissect his defense’s dominant performance against West Virginia’s invincible offense. He figured what the hell, the season was over and no one from West Virginia would remember it anyway. Those guys were still in a fog from the loss. The gist of Rhodes’ presentation was less about tactics and more about butt whippings.
Meanwhile in West Virginia, conspiracy theories were running rampant. How in the world could a team that lost to Navy beat a team as powerful as No. 2-ranked West Virginia?
Who was standing behind the picket fence up in the grassy knoll?
Certainly a guy like Wannstedt needed help. There was no way in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald that someone like Dave Wannstedt could pull off something as significant as assassinating West Virginia’s national title hopes without the assistance of others, Mountaineer fans reasoned.
But Wannstedt did it. There was no Warren Commission needed to review this tragedy. The Zapruder film said it all.
And then as a post script, Wannstedt went out and stole a bunch of West Virginia’s recruits.
Yep, there is a new civility in the Backyard Brawl.
Enjoy today’s game.
