Texas and West Virginia desperate to avoid 0-2 Big 12 start
West Virginia (2-2, 0-1 Big 12) at Texas (2-2, 0-1), Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET (FS1) Line: Texas by 9 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook Series: West Virginia leads 6-5 WHAT’S AT STAKE Both teams will be desperate to avoid an 0-2 start in a Big 12 that looks wide open....
JT Daniels, defense lead West Virginia to dominant win at Virginia TechVideo
BLACKSBURG, Va. — JT Daniels threw for 203 yards and a touchdown to lead West Virginia to a 33-10 win over Virginia Tech on Thursday night. Freshman CJ Donaldson rushed for 106 yards, and West Virginia (2-2) got a strong performance from its defense to win its second straight game...
West Virginia, Virginia Tech to square off in Lane Stadium
West Virginia (1-2) at Virginia Tech (2-1) 7:30 p.m. Thursday, ESPN Line: West Virginia by 1 1/2, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Series record: West Virginia leads 29-23-1. What’s at stake? The Mountaineers had a late loss against Pittsburgh and then an overtime loss at Kansas before beating up on FCS...
CJ Donaldson, Tony Mathis combine for 5 TDs as West Virginia rolls past TowsonVideo
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Tony Mathis rushed for 104 yards and two touchdowns, CJ Donaldson ran for 101 yards and three scores, and West Virginia breezed to a 65-7 victory over Towson on Saturday. On a day when West Virginia held a ceremony to honor some of its greatest offensive players,...
West Virginia looking for first win, hosts FCS Towson
Towson (2-0) at West Virginia (0-2), 1 p.m. Saturday Line: No line, according to FanDuel Sportsbook. Series record: West Virginia leads 1-0. What’s at stake? West Virginia is trying to avoid its first 0-3 start since 1979 and desperately needs a win against a Championship Subdivision opponent. The Mountaineers fell...
After 0-2 start, WVU’s Brown trying to salvage season, job
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The early part of the 2022 schedule was supposed to be West Virginia’s best opportunity at putting together only the second winning season under fourth-year coach Neal Brown. Instead, fans are in an uproar over two close losses and the Mountaineers’ first 0-2 start since 1979, with...
Swin Cash, Bob Huggins, George Karl honored Basketball Hall of Fame enshrines its Class of 2022
Tim Hardaway took the stage and told a story of his early days in the NBA, when Golden State teammates Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin would often ask him the same question. “They would ask me, ‘Tim, how great do you want to be?’” Hardaway said. They have their answer....
Jalon Daniels, Jacobee Bryant lead Kansas over WVU in OT
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Jalon Daniels threw three touchdown passes, including one in overtime, and Jacobee Bryant returned an interception for a score on the final play as Kansas beat West Virginia, 55-42, in their Big 12 opener on Saturday night. Kansas (2-0, 1-0 Big 12) has won its first two...
Former WVU, IUP coach Frank Cignetti Sr. dies at 84
Frank Cignetti Sr., whose playing and coaching career spanned 50 years at IUP, Leechburg, Pitt, West Virginia and, finally, back to IUP where he enjoyed his greatest success, died Saturday. He was 84. So Proud to be your son, player & assistant. You are my Hero, Love You So Much...
Euphoric night ends well for Pitt, but now it’s time to fix what went wrong
After Pitt fans set aside the hate they have for West Virginia and wiped away those tears of joy triggered by the 38-31 victory, they should face the truth: There are issues that need to be addressed with this football team. The Backyard Brawl on Thursday night had the feel...
Penn State-Purdue tops Backyard Brawl in national TV ratings
Fox’s coverage of the Penn State-Purdue game drew bigger national television ratings than ESPN’s broadcast of the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia on Thursday night. According to showbuzzdaily.com, the Penn State-Purdue game drew 3.512 million viewers while the Pitt-West Virginia game drew 3.152 million viewers. The Pitt-West Virginia...
Top 5 biggest crowds in Pittsburgh sports history
Traffic tie-ups well before rush hour, tailgate parties springing up at many parking spots on the North Shore and a record crowd inside Acrisure Stadium made the renewal of the Backyard Brawl special. More so for victorious Pitt than West Virginia, considering that the Mountaineers led by seven deep into...
Pitt notebook: WVU coach Neal Brown defends 4th-quarter punt, would do it again
The game was sitting there for the West Virginia Mountaineers to secure in their travel bags, hit the country roads and return to Morgantown with a shocking upset. But Neal Brown decided to punt. With 6 minutes, 17 seconds left and WVU leading No. 17 Pitt, 31-24, on Thursday night...
West Virginia matches Pitt in mishaps, spoiling upset bid
No one could claim that the first Backyard Brawl in 11 years was lacking in excitement. Multiple lead changes, momentum shifts and an overturned completed pass call on fourth-and-16 with 22 seconds to play that took away a chance for West Virginia, trailing by a touchdown, to tie the game...
Pitt rallies late to secure 38-31 victory against West Virginia in Backyard BrawlVideo
Dave Wannstedt’s words carried across the room and into M.J. Devonshire’s head long before Pitt put a lock on what became an improbable Backyard Brawl victory, 38-31, against West Virginia. “He said it: ‘Somebody is always going to be legendary and it could be you,’ ” Devonshire said of the...
Before Brawl, Tony Dorsett lends a hand in Pitt’s recruiting efforts
The Pitt sideline at Acrisure Stadium was teeming with recruits and recruiters before the West Virginia-Pitt game Thursday night. One guy — an unofficial Pitt recruiter — stood out among the crowd. Tony Dorsett, who is Pitt’s only Heisman Trophy winner, was engaged in an animated conversation with Austintown Fitch...
ESPN’s Rece Davis, Desmond Howard relish college rivalries like the Backyard Brawl
Never more so than now has money been in the face of a casual college football fan. Of course, across collegiate athletics, dollar signs were always the straw that stirred the drink. But nowadays, the differences between the business models of college football and say, the NFL or NBA, have...
Big 12 last time at 10 teams; Oklahoma State seeks 2nd titleVideo
Mike Gundy is the only Big 12 head coach still around from the last time the conference was going through so much change. That was a little more than a decade ago, about the time Oklahoma State won its only championship in the league. With new commissioner Brett Yormark already...
Backyard Brawl: Memories of 13-9 in ’07 with Pitt’s Chris McKillop — ‘We played a perfect game’
When it comes to Chris McKillop’s freshman year as a Pitt Panther, there is at least one aspect of coach Walt Harris’ daily practices that the defensive lineman will never forget. “Walt Harris had a ‘West Virginia’ period,” McKillop said during Wednesday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast. “In an 18-period practice....
After 10 seasons without a Brawl, Pitt, WVU find natural rival right down the road
The night the Backyard Brawl faded away, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri was sacked 10 times in a 21-20 West Virginia victory in Morgantown. Panthers coach Todd Graham said the loss “devastated” him. That was Nov. 25, 2011. The schools separated by 75 miles of Interstate 79 haven’t met since. The...
Backyard Brawl: WVU players ‘recognize their legacy could be authored on Thursday night’
Jed Drenning knows how West Virginia football fans talk about the Backyard Brawl. He was a backup quarterback for the Mountaineers, and he has been part of their game-day broadcast crew for 20 years. Those games are spoken about in snapshots. In individual moments. In specific final scores. “Where were...
Fortunes of WVU offense could ride on health of transfer QB JT Daniels
West Virginia knew what it got in transfer JT Daniels: a quarterback who went undefeated as a starter at Georgia — and has sat out more games than he’s played in throughout his career. Daniels understands the way to helping the Mountaineers become relevant in the Big 12 this season...
Backyard Brawl breakdown: West Virginia’s top 5 wins in series vs. Pitt
With so much talk about the Backyard Brawl resonating up and down Interstate 79, you might wonder: Where did the name Backyard Brawl originate? Most people believe it wasn’t bestowed on what would become one of college football’s most passionate rivalries until the 1960s when the late Pittsburgh Press sports...
New coordinator, QB give West Virginia hope for improvement
Neal Brown took himself out of the equation after West Virginia’s offense struggled last season. The fourth-year coach handed play-calling duties in January to newly hired offensive coordinator Graham Harrell, who was prolific in the same role at Southern Cal and North Texas and as a quarterback under Mike Leach...
Backyard Brawl breakdown: Pitt’s top 5 wins in the series vs. WVU
The football teams of Pitt and West Virginia started playing each other in 1895. The Mountaineers won the first three games by scores of 8-0, 6-0 and 6-5. They decided to keep playing, anyway. In 1904, after scoring a total of 29 points over six games, Pitt won 53-0, starting...
