Published: November 27, 2009 01:42 am      

WVU, Pitt renew longtime rivalry tonight

MORGANTOWN — The University of Pittsburgh, the nation’s ninth-ranked football team, has waited two weeks to play this 102nd renewal of The Backyard Brawl.

That is nothing to the two years West Virginia University has waited for this game.

True, the teams renewed the rivalry last year with the Panthers winning, 19-15, but that was in Pittsburgh.

Now the Mountaineers, their season teetering precariously on the brink and with the Gator Bowl suddenly an achievable goal, get Pitt at home with a chance to ruin their dream season just as the Panthers ruined theirs two years ago with a 13-9 upset.

Kickoff is at 7 tonight.

“It’s heated,” WVU wide receiver Carmen Connelly, a Pittsburgh kid who came to Morgantown to play, said of the rivalry. “All week you can tell it’s something different. This isn’t Louisville. This is the Backyard Brawl.”

The weak of heart need not apply. The week of body can’t survive.

“The last time they were here they abused us,” added Don Barclay, another Pittsburgh kid who came to Morgantown and who starts at left tackle for the Mountaineers. “They took something from us, and we want to get it back.”

While revenge would be sweet, it would not be complete.

When Pitt came in as a four-touchdown underdog, the Mountaineers felt they were on the verge of their first national championship. Ranked No. 1 in one poll, they were assured a spot in the BCS championship game with a victory and will argue to this day that they would have beaten the Ohio State team that showed up that day.

A WVU victory would certainly crush Pitt’s national reputation, but the Panthers would still be able to claim a share of the Big East title and earn the BCS bowl bid by upsetting Cincinnati next week.

The bowl scenario remains as jumbled as the conference picture, especially since Notre Dame remains in the Gator Bowl picture if it can defeat Stanford this weekend. If not, the Irish would be 6-6 and ineligible to take the Big East’s spot in the Gator Bowl.

If WVU beats Pitt and Pitt then loses to Cincinnati, it would be almost a certainty that WVU would be Gator Bowl bound. If, however, Pitt beats WVU and then loses to Cincinnati, the Panthers probably would head for the Gator Bowl.

But first there is a matter of this football game which matches Pitt’s explosive pro-style offense built around the running of freshman sensation Dion Lewis and the pass catching of explosive Jonathan Baldwin and Dorin Dickerson and brawling band of defenders against WVU’s more sophisticated motion offense run out of multiple sets with Jarrett Brown throwing and Noel Devine, coming off a series of injuries that had slowed him down, running.

WVU’s offense has been sluggish of late, not reaching 30 points in five games, and Devine has not rushed for 100 yards in three games. What’s more, Pitt has stopped Devine well during his career, holding him to 27 yards on 19 carries in two games.

In the final analysis, the game may come down to the protection the Mountaineer offensive line can give to Brown, with much of the pressure on Barclay, who lines up against one of the nation’s premier pass rushers, Greg Romeus of Pitt.

“He’s going to be a high draft pick,” Barclay said of Romeus. “This will be a big test. The big thing in this game is who is going to be nastier.”

WVU must win this game to regain some of the momentum it had under Rich Rodriguez, before he fled to Michigan. This is especially true in recruiting, for the rich Western Pennsylvania area around Pittsburgh has been drying up for WVU.

In fact, this year, the Mountaineers have failed to land a commitment from Western Pennsylvania among 18 verbals.

The Pittsburgh area has long been a hotbed of recruiting for WVU.

“Coach Bobby Bowden made a statement,” Stewart said, referring to the Florida State coach who was the Mountaineers coach from 1970-75. “Now this was the heyday; the mills were going; the mines were going strong up and down the river. Coach Bowden said it was such a hotbed that you didn’t have to leave the Pittsburgh area to find the best athletes in the United States. That still holds true to a certain point; there are just not as many as there used to be.”

“This game can swing it either way for a high school kid (from Western Pennsylvania),” Connelly said.

E-mail Bob Hertzel at bhertzel@hotmail.com.