MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – They say you can learn a lot about a rivalry game the first time you play it. That's certainly the case for West Virginia coach Neal Brown, who got his first-ever taste of the Backyard Brawl last September at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
 
His Mountaineers had a touchdown lead with the football near midfield in the late stages of the game before Pitt erupted for a pair of scores to hold on for a 38-31 victory. Of course, Brown and the West Virginia players got a full dose of Panther hospitality having to walk past the Pitt student section to get to their locker room afterward.
 
Brown also got some Pitt love before the game as well.
 
Soon after the team arrived at the stadium, well before kickoff, Brown wanted to take his young son, Dax, onto the field to experience a professional football venue since Pitt shares the stadium with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
 
While he was out there, he thought it would be a cool place to shoot a congratulations video for his high school coach, who was getting inducted into the hall of fame the next day. Just take his son out for some rare father-son time and then make a quick video where the Steelers play before returning to the task at hand, or so he thought.
 

"I had no idea the students were already there and here I come out of the tunnel with Dax, and he learned some new words," Brown chuckled. "He wanted to know why they were giving us the 'we're No. 1 gesture' with the wrong finger. 
 
"From that point on, I kind of got a good understanding of what it's about," he said.
 
His complete understanding came afterward when his team was unable to hold on to a 31-24 lead with less than five minutes to play. Many, many years ago, Bobby Bowden learned a very valuable lesson about losing leads to Pitt. 
 
Lock your locker room door!
 
Bowden's West Virginia squad in 1970 led Pitt 35-8 at halftime and wound up losing 36-35. Afterward, a mob of angry Mountaineer fans surrounded the locker room pounding on the door wanting to confront Bowden, who refused to come out and answer them.
 
"I couldn't go out there," the late coach said years later, "because they would have lynched me!"
 
Ohio native Don Nehlen got a sampling of high-class Steel City hospitality when his first West Virginia team, coming off a ridiculous midseason trip to Hawaii, got boat-raced at Pitt 42-14. As the teams were walking off the field, the scoreboard operator posted the message "A Coal Miner's Slaughter" – an obvious reference to the popular TV movie "A Coal Miner's Daughter."
 
Years later, there was a wise-cracking Pitt public address announcer who thought it would be funny to make some fictitious announcements at the expense of their West Virginia guests. "Your attention please," he began, "there is a tractor parked outside with license plate E-I-E-I-O; your lights are on."
 
Later in the game, he announced the Pitt Stadium smoking policy. "Fans, there is no smoking permitted in Pitt Stadium. That includes cigarettes, cigars and corncob pipes." Then, finally, he made the joke announcement of asking a male with three first names "Jim-Bob-Billy" to call home.
 
Of course, Mountaineer fans have had their moments too. The Pitt players and coaches recall with great pleasure having their bus rocked by fans and pelted with debris before and after their upset victory in Morgantown in 2007. That win was so pleasing to the Pitt coaches that afterward they sent out Christmas cards to recruits with the score of the West Virginia game on it.
 
Before the resumption of the series last year after an 11-year hiatus, Brown invited a series of speakers to come in and talk to his team about the Pitt rivalry. He wanted to make sure his guys understood what the game meant to former players and coaches who performed in it.
 
Each gave them basically the same message: "You will know once you play them."
 
Now they know.
 
"It was definitely different," junior offensive lineman Brandon Yates, a Middletown, Delaware, resident, recalled. "Going in there it was kind of surreal. It was a different kind of atmosphere and a different kind of energy. You feel like you are a part of the history, and every person that has been in that atmosphere, you understand the Backyard Brawl. It was loud. People were screaming. It was crazy."
 
First-year cornerback Beanie Bishop was sitting in an empty seat listening to Yates talk to the media about his experience playing in the Pitt game last year. Bishop played against Marshall when he was at Western Kentucky, and he also experienced the Wisconsin-Minnesota rivalry when he was at Minnesota, but he admits this one is going to be different.
 
He already got a sense of that during the brief time he's lived in Morgantown, encountering Mountaineer fans while out shopping in the grocery store.
 
"When I go into the store and go get food with my West Virginia stuff on they're like, 'Let's beat Pitt!' Even before the season started, that's like the focus, so people get very excited for the game," he explained.
 
"The (Wisconsin-Minnesota) rivalry there is one of the longest ones, but I don't think there is as much hate as there is for this rivalry," Bishop added. "Fans cared, but it wasn't like this. You know we hate Pitt all year round. It's kind of one of those things."
 
Sophomore running back Jaylen Anderson also experienced the rivalry for the first time. He was recruited by Pitt, visited the football facility, but chose to come to West Virginia. He said the biggest atmosphere that he's experienced so far at WVU was last year's Baylor game.
 
Sorry Jaylen, that won't come close to touching the energy and electricity Milan Puskar Stadium is going to deliver on Saturday night – Morgantown's first Saturday night prime-time game in seven years.
 
For his part, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is expecting a warm welcome from his West Virginia friends this weekend. He once coached at Mountaineer Field when he was Cincinnati's defensive coordinator, but his Bearcat defense didn't do much to keep the WVU fans interested.
 
Most of them were already gone by the middle of the third quarter once West Virginia took a 42-10 lead. Last year, after escaping Western Michigan with a 34-13 victory, Narduzzi compared the shabby treatment Western Michigan fans gave his team to what he would expect to get in Morgantown from West Virginia fans.
 
"It was embarrassing," he said. "Felt like I was down in Morgantown, I guess."
 
Earlier this summer, Narduzzi called into the 93.7 The Fan morning show to complain about one of its hosts, Adam Crowley, a WVU fan. The Fan is Pitt's flagship radio station.
 
"This is Pat from Pittsburgh wondering why this West Virginia guy is doing our Pittsburgh radio show. Like, we couldn't find someone better. I mean, his parents were smart enough to go to Pittsburgh, but this guy just couldn't get it done, huh?"
 
Crowley responded by asking Narduzzi if he thinks Pitt fans will show up in Morgantown the way West Virginia fans did to help set an Acrisure Stadium record crowd of 70,622 – the largest crowd to ever watch a sporting event in Pittsburgh.
 
Narduzzi replied, in part, "You guys like to talk about crazy stuff a year later after it didn't go so good for you. But I don't think we'll travel as well down to Morgantown because of the smaller stadium size. And the way they treat fans down there, I think there's a lot of Pitt fans that … obviously, they've got the money to do it, but I just wonder what that will be like.
 
"From all the stories I've heard, there's a lot of older Pitt fans that are like, 'I'm not going down to that place. I'd rather go to the zoo,'" he said.
 
Narduzzi took a somewhat different tone on Monday during his weekly press conference.
 
"I think the kids will really learn what the rivalry is on the road and how hostile it is," he said. "I mean, rivalries are rivalries. It's nothing more than any other game for me. We know they're just down the road, but it's a football game that means a lot to a lot of people. Pitt fans are passionate. West Virginia fans are passionate. It comes down to passion. People want to see you play well in those games."
 
The stadium on Saturday will be loud and electric, but it won't be as Narduzzi described. West Virginia fans will show respect to Pitt fans who come down here and show respect in turn. When it comes to Pitt, in the past that's always been the rub with West Virginians.
 
Since joining the Big 12 in 2012, Milan Puskar Stadium has been a great venue for opposing fans to visit. 
 
Kansas State, Kansas, Oklahoma State and Oklahoma? No problems.
 
TCU, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Texas and Baylor? No issues, either. Why? Because their fans are respectful.
 
"Sometimes our fans are given a bad reputation, which I'm sure was probably earned at some point as far as opposing teams coming in, but I don't necessarily think that's the case anymore," Brown said.
 
The rivalry is on for four consecutive years through 2025 and will resume in 2029 for another four-year stretch through 2032. Brown hopes it can remain on the schedule.
 
"A lot of the rivalries have kind of gone to the wayside, which is disappointing," he said. "I'm in favor of playing the game. I think this makes a lot of sense to be our nonconference, Power 5 opponent each year. It's a game our fans and their fans want to see. This is heated; we understand that, and our players look forward to getting back into that.
 
"I hope it's electric," he continued. "I know this is one that's been circled for a long time. It's been sold-out for a long time and a lot of people are coming into town for this. It's a great opportunity."
 
Yates said he is hoping Milan Puskar Stadium will exceed the atmosphere he experienced at Acrisure Stadium last year.
 
"I have always imagined it, but I won't know until we get into that situation. I imagine it's going to be a lot different for us than when we were at Pitt. I think our fans will show out for sure for this game," he concluded.
 
Saturday's game will be televised nationally on ABC (Sean McDonough, Greg McElroy and Molly McGrath) and will kick off at 7:30 p.m.