No. 19: Pitt, 1997
June 20, 2010 12:34 PM | General
July 12, 2010
The gap between Pitt and West Virginia appeared to be widening. "Back to the Future II" featuring the return of coach Johnny Majors had not gone well for the Panthers, Majors' teams winning 3, 3, 2 and 4 games during his second go-around from 1993-96.
Then Walt Harris took over the Pitt program for the 1997 season, introducing a pro-style passing attack that gave teams fits that year. Still, Pitt didn't hold any grand illusions when it traveled to Morgantown to wrap up the regular season against the 7-3 Mountaineers.
"This is our bowl game," Harris said. "These kids don't know what a bowl game is about. There isn't a member of this program, except the coaches, who have been to a bowl."
After a sluggish first half, West Virginia scored 17 points in the fourth quarter, including Jay Taylor's 34-yard field goal with 1:19 remaining, to tie the game at 35.
This was the first overtime game in Mountaineer Field history, the NCAA adopting a new overtime rule that season to eliminate tie football games.
Two critical blunders cost West Virginia in overtime: the usually sure-handed Amos Zereoue fumbled during the second overtime when the Mountaineers were getting into position to kick a game-winning field goal; and even more fatally, the Mountaineer defense couldn't stop Pitt on fourth and 17.
The Panthers, trailing 38-35 after Jay Taylor's career-long 52-yard field goal, were down to their final play at the 32 yard line. Quarterback Pete Gonzalez's 20-yard completion to Jake Hoffert to the WVU 12 for a first down should have never happened with the defense the Mountaineers were playing.
"We stacked the safeties, which means on the drawing board, they can't do that," explained West Virginia coach Don Nehlen after the game. "Their guys made the plays when they had to and our guys didn't."
"They were in a coverage that should have been a single safety robbing the crossing area, along with the deep safety," Harris later explained to author Sam Scuillo. "What happened was they busted; both guys went deep. There was nobody right there, Jake Hoffert beat his man, and Pete made the throw."
Two plays later, Gonzalez fired a strike to Terry Murphy in the middle of the end zone to give Pitt a 41-38 victory, snapping West Virginia's five-game Backyard Brawl winning streak.
"I've thrown that pass 100 times in my sleep," said Gonzalez, who finished the game completing 22 of 34 passes for 273 yards and five touchdowns. Gonzalez, who sat the bench for three years until becoming a starter as a senior under new coach Harris, broke Glenn Foley's Big East record for touchdown passes in a season with 30. Foley held the previous mark with 25 set in 1993. Gonzalez was also Pitt's most prolific passer since Dan Marino.
Harris summed up the jubilant feeling in the Pitt locker room after the game.
"I think the Lord was a factor tonight," he said. "Finally, we've done our part to make this more of a rivalry."
