Inside The Panthers

Pitt HC Plays Down WVU Trash Talk

Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi played down his WVU trash talk.

Dominic Campbell

Sep 16, 2023; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown speaks with Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi after the game at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images
Sep 16, 2023; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown speaks with Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi after the game at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images / Ben Queen-Imagn Images
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PITTSBURGH -- Pitt Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi never shies himself from stoking a rival and did so last week with the West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Neal Brown.

WVU head coach Neal Brown faced criticism after his team lost to then ranked No. 11 Iowa State at home in primetime in Week 7. The program unveiled "Coal Rush" jerseys in front of 55,000 fans and fell to 3-3 on the season.

Brown fielded a question on what he would say to the fans following another difficult loss, which he focused more on fun the fans had and less on the game itself.

“I get that they want to win, but what I would say is did they have a good time?" Neal said. "You know what I mean? Did they enjoy it? It was a pretty good atmosphere, I’m assuming they probably had a pretty good time tailgating, so if they’re in the deal for enjoyment, then I would come back. I looked at the weather, it’s going to be nice again. It’s a night game, and we need them to provide a home-field advantage. We need them.

“I get they’re frustrated that we didn’t win, we’ve played a tough schedule. Everybody that’s beat us hasn’t lost but that’s not an excuse, that’s the truth and the games in our league are gonna come down to the fourth quarter and I don’t think this one on Saturday's gonna be any different.

"We need them to help us. I do get their frustration, but I don't think, when you watch our product, I don't think the product is something, other than the outcome, our kids played hard. That was a really physical football game on Saturday. There's a lot of West Virginia kids spilling it out and so, there's clear strain, clear physicality. It was an entertaining football game. If you're a football fan and you're just watching that, it's pretty entertaining, we just didn't play well enough to win. So, I hope with that in mind, they would come back for another entertaining game that hopefully we can play better enough at the end and win."

Pitt managed to defeat WVU this season back on Sept. 14 in Week 3 at Acrisure Stadium. WVU led 34-24 with five minutes remaining, but Pitt would score quickly, force a three-and-out and score the winning touchdown with less than a minute left to come out victorious, 38-34.

Narduzzi took to Twitter last week to take a jab at Brown, writing...

"Great work during our bye week practices!

Did we enjoy it? ✅

Nice weather?✅
#ProveIt #H2P

Pitt football quote tweeted Narduzzi's tweet, replying, "We had a pretty good time… I would come back!"

Pitt made a comeback against West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl, erasing a 10-point deficit with five minutes remaining to win 38-34 on Sept. 14 at Acrisure Stadium.

Pat McAfee hosted Narduzzi on his show on Oct. 25, asking him a variety of questions on the team so far. This included the comments to Brown, as McAfee played for WVU in college, which Narduzzi chose to play down in a funny way.

“You read that wrong," Narduzzi said. "I mean, it was just a beautiful day in Pittsburgh for practice. The weather was good, shoot, we were having a fun practice."

Pitt will face off against WVU one more time in 2025 at Mountaineer Field in Morgantown, before they take a three-year hiatus prior to the next four-game agreement from 2029-32.

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Dominic Campbell
DOMINIC CAMPBELL

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