West Virginia’s Clay Ash (27) carries the ball as head coach Rich Rodriguez watches from the sideline during last week’s game against Ohio in Athens, Ohio. (Photo by David Pennock)

Saturday will be the 108th meeting of the Backyard Brawl between Pitt and West Virginia, one of the famous rivalries in college football. It’s been going for four years strong now, but after this year, the rivalry will be postponed to 2029. For a couple of years, the biggest rivalry in college sports won’t happen.

During the week leading up to the final game before the break, there’s been conversations about potentially continuing the series into 2027. It’s hard because football schedules are planned so far in advance.

However, there was an opening. Recently, WVU’s series with Alabama, which was a home-and-home agreement that was supposed to happen in 2027 and 2028, was cancelled because of a new scheduling system for the SEC.

Talk immediately started about how the Backyard Brawl could be in place of the series.

Pitt’s coach, Pat Narduzzi, who had his weekly press conference on Monday, said his athletic director, Allen Greene, reached out to WVU about extending the series when the Alabama news broke.

“I don’t want to speak for Allen, but I think our athletic director has reached out to them and they already got it filled up,” Narduzzi said. “Maybe they don’t want to play us, I don’t know. But they filled it up. But they knew that was going to happen. I know if we knew that was going to happen, (WVU) would be our first call. Whatever, can’t do anything about it. Just stay in my lane.”

Narduzzi calling out rival programs isn’t new. He also mentioned Pitt wanted to play Penn State, renewing that rivalry, too.

“Yeah, we’d like to see obviously the game be played,” Narduzzi said. “I think it’s going to pick up in ’28 or ’29. I thought it was ’29. It’s going to be a while since we play them again. I think there’s nothing I can do about it. I’d like this game to be played. I’d like to play Penn State. I’d like to play any rivalry game. Just having that on our schedule is a lot of fun as a coach and a player. It’s great for the fans.”

It was an interesting statement from Narduzzi because before the season, WVU athletic director, Wren Baker said he reached out to Pitt about continuing the Backyard Brawl.

“I actually had reached out to the athletic director at Pitt to extend the series,” Baker said on August 22. “They knew fully well we were trying to extend the series.”

Baker’s comments were a day after the announcement from the SEC. Four days later, WVU announced the Alabama series was cancelled.

Baker said he was already preparing for something like this to happen, and when the series was cancelled, WVU replaced Alabama with home games against Coastal Carolina and Southern Mississippi.

It sounds like Baker tried to extend the series before. Then the SEC announcement happened, and, according to Narduzzi, Pitt tried to extend the series, but WVU already filled the spots.

Pitt also didn’t fit the new scheduling formula for WVU. Once the series was cancelled, Baker said the goal for each season is to play an FCS school, a Group of Six team, and then a Power Four team because it gives WVU the best chance of achieving the goal of making the College Football Playoff. That’s true for two of the next three years. WVU already has Virginia and Tennessee lined up as Power Four teams, so Pitt would’ve made it two each year.

“When the Alabama thing happened, very rarely you can find another Power Four team that had the same opening and fit the schedule,” Rich Rodriguez said. “I think it was Virginia that we’re playing now. I’m not sure, you guys would know, but anyway, I know our folks did a good job finding that game, and for them to replace Alabama.”

There’s also the issue of where the game would be played. This year, the game is in Morgantown, so that’d mean next year, the game would be in Pittsburgh. The Alabama series was supposed to start in West Virginia, giving the Mountaineers another home game. If the Backyard Brawl continued, WVU would lose a home game, which Baker said is important.

In 2027, WVU added Southern Miss. That year, WVU plays two Group of Six schools and an FCS, so you could say, WVU could’ve played Pitt, but that game would have to be played in Pittsburgh, forfeiting a home game, again.

“I am also aware of the importance of a seventh home game in 2027 for our fans and the huge economic impact it brings to our state, city and tourism division,” Baker said. “Visitors coming to West Virginia are not only critical for state tourism, but also to our local economy.”

With all those factors, it doesn’t look like the Backyard Brawl will happen again until 2029, even with all the talk back and forth. But it sounds like both sides want to keep the rivalry going and long past 2029, and it’s already scheduled for 2030 and 2032.

“We’ll play again in ’29,” Rodriguez said. “We’ll see what happens after that.”

Pitt QB Holstein to

challenge WVU defense

Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein was pushed out of the pocket and scrambled to his right. Before heading out of bounds, Holstein heaved the ball downfield to wide receiver Raphael Williams for a 48-yard touchdown. It was Holstein’s highlight on a four-touchdown day.

After the win, Holstein became 9-3 as a starter at Pitt after transferring from Alabama. He’s the second of a long stretch of impressive and athletic quarterbacks that West Virginia’s defense will face. He could arguably be the best out of the high-profile group that consists of Kansas’ Jalon Daniels, Ohio’s Parker Navarro and Utah’s Devon Dampier.

“He’s a great player,” Rich Rodriguez said. “I think he’s an NFL guy. He can make all the throws. He’s, I think, one of the top quarterback prospects in the country coming out, and I don’t know if he’s ever lost a game as a starter. He’s off to a great start.”

Defensive coordinator Zac Alley has his work cut out for him again. Last week against Ohio, Alley’s defense in the second half shut down the talented Navarro and turned him over a couple of times. Navarro hurt the defense a couple of times, taking off and scrambling for a first down, but compared to his other games, Navarro was kept pretty in check.

Holstein can take off, too. During his 48-yard touchdown pass, Holstein rolled out to his right. He doesn’t rush as much as Navarro, but Holstein can take off and hurt defenses with his legs.

Rodriguez doesn’t think the two quarterbacks are the same, so it’ll be a different strategy for Week 3.

“Last week was different because Parker Navarro was such a unique guy,” Rodriguez said. “He would jump passes and make you miss and scramble around, get first downs, and did a bunch of things… Last week, we missed a few opportunities. Let them get some first downs, some key plays. This week, we can’t let that happen. He can move. Eli can move around a little bit. He’s not just a stationary target.”

Holstein punishes teams more with his arm, and Pitt throws the ball a lot. Holstein threw 28 passes against Central Michigan, and star running back Desmond Reid only got 10 touches. Most of Holstein’s passes are deep shots to his favorite target, Williams.

Alley wants to take away the deep shots, so the pass rush will be important Saturday. Rodriguez said pass rusher Jimmori Robinson, who’s been dealing with eligibility issues, could play. He could help in that department.

“I think it’s huge,” Alley said about pressuring the QB. “They want to take vertical shots and try and push the ball down the field, obviously. If you can get the pass rush there, it’s hard to throw when you’re on the ground. Hopefully, we can get the guys in a position to win and have some success that way.”

There was some pressure on Navarro last week. He didn’t really take deep shots, except for the blown coverages. The issue was when Navarro’s read wasn’t there, he’d take off.

This week, Alley wants to throw multiple looks at Holstein to confuse the sophomore and hopefully bring him to the ground.

“Changing the look on them, moving the pocket, doing a bunch of different ways to blitz different guys and attack them,” Alley said. “I think that’s always a positive. I felt like we did that last week, and trying to get some guys one-on-ones across the front line and just create pressure. I think that the disguising, the moving, the stemming, those type of things are big for what we want to do, and we want to give those guys problems to tell what the presnap picture is going to be.”

It seems easy in concept that if you pressure Holstein, the defense should succeed. But, when you send the house, Holstein can dump it to his tight end, Josh Altsman, for a quick pickup, or check it down to All-American, Reed, who can take a screen pass for 70 yards. Pitt’s offense can hurt you in multiple ways. Alley’s defense has another big challenge on its hands.

“They’re really good,” Alley said. “Really good team. Great quarterback who can throw the ball all over the place. Big, hard to tackle. When he gets out, he scrambles… There are very few weaknesses as far as their offense.”