Published: July 24, 2008 12:07 am         

WVU-Pitt game time set

MORGANTOWN — Now we know.

The game all of West Virginia has been waiting for since what had to be the most devastating loss in WVU’s history — the rematch with Pitt — has been set for noon on Nov. 28 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.

It will be a nationally televised game on the Friday after Thanksgiving on ABC-TV.

Pitt made the announcement on Wednesday.

As everyone knows, Pitt changed the course of football history in West Virginia last year when the 4-7 Panthers upset the Mountaineers on their home field, 13-9.

The upset is considered one of — if not the — greatest upsets of all-time as WVU was a 28.5 points favorite.

A victory would have sent West Virginia into the national championship game with a chance to win its first national title. Instead, it had to settle for the Fiesta Bowl, where it defeated No. 3 Oklahoma, 48-28.

The upset did more than just cost WVU a chance at a national title. It also cost a head coach.

Had WVU won the game and gone on to play for the championship, Rich Rodriguez never would have looked at the Michigan job that he took not long after the Mountaineers lost.

The upset led to the long, bitter lawsuit over Rodriguez’s $4 million buyout clause, the problems that grew out of assistant coach Calvin Magee charging that he was overlooked as a potential replacement for Rodriguez because he was black and to the controversial hiring of Bill Stewart in the afterglow of the stunning Fiesta Bowl victory over the Sooners.

     

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