Pitt HC Wants Backyard Brawl on Thanksgiving

Pitt Panthers football head coach Pat Narduzzi wants a date change for future Backyard Brawls.

Nov 25, 2023; Durham, North Carolina, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi looks on during the first half of the game against Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images / Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers will battle it out with a bitter rival in the West Virginia Mountaineers this weekend for another edition of the Backyard Brawl.

This is the third Backyard Brawl since the two schools reignited the series in 2022 for four seasons through 2025, with two home games for each program. Pitt won the first time in 2022 at Acrisure Stadium, capped off with a M.J. Devonshire pick-six, while WVU stifled a poor Pitt offense in 2023, with quarterback Phil Jurkovec completing 8-of-20 passes with three interceptions.

West Virginia hosts in 2025, but the series will take a three-year hiatus until they play four seasons again from 2029-32.

The dates for those matchups are at Pitt on Sept. 8, 2029, at WVU on Sept. 7, 2030, at Pitt on Sept. 6, 2031 and at WVU on Sept. 11, 2032.

Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi wants to change the schedule for those games to later in the year around or on Thanksgiving Day.

His reasoning for this is that the Backyard Brawl took place late in November consistently from 1997-2011, sometimes on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday, for 15 straight years when both teams played in the Big East.

Narduzzi will play the rivalry whenever, regardless of kickoff time or time of the year, as he anticipates the great rivalry every time the Backyard Brawl occurs.

“I believe, I believe that the game should be played all the time," Narduzzi said. "This is why you coach football, this is why you play the game. I believe the next time we play them, it’s going to be later in the year. It’s going to be Thanksgiving day, how about that! Like, why not, right?...I think the next four game stint we have with them, I think we had tried to get it in November sometime…but we’d like it to be back like it used to be back in the old days. I think, a lot of times, I remember growing up as a kid in Youngstown, watching it on Thanksgiving…To me, we need to get it back to where it used to be, but, 9 a.m., 8 a.m., September, October, November, doesn’t matter to me."

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