College Football 25 Simulation Predicts Thrilling End to 2024 Backyard Brawl

An incredible matchup between West Virginia and Pitt this Saturday? CFB 25 says so.

WVU vs. Pitt CFB 25 Simulation.mp4 /

The Backyard Brawl is one of the most heated rivalries in all of college sports and this Saturday, the West Virginia Mountaineers and Pitt Panthers will meet for the third time since the rekindling of the rivalry in 2022.

Continuing our new weekly series of predicting each Mountaineer football game, we ran a simulation on College Football 25 between WVU and Pitt. Full video footage of the game can be seen above.

Things didn't get off to a great start for West Virginia as Garrett Greene was picked off by Noah Biglow on the Mountaineers' opening drive with the return going to the 16-yard line. Fortunately, WVU's defense bowed up and held the Panthers to a chip shot field goal for the first points of the game.

Greene bounced back from the interception leading WVU right down the field for a touchdown, hitting Justin Robinson on a post from 23 yards out.

Toward the end of the first half, the Panthers ran an effective two-minute offense to regain the lead. QB Eli Holstein led the charge connecting on a 22-yard pass over the middle to Konata Mumpfield and then found Devin Whitlock on virtually the same play for another 20-ish yards. On third down, Holstein took a shot to the back corner of the end zone to Mumpfield who reeled it in for the score to give Pitt a 10-7 lead at the half.

On the opening drive of the third quarter, WVU running back Jahiem White broke through a handful of tackles on a screen and sprinted down the sideline for a 55-yard touchdown. That would be the last time WVU saw the ball for quite a while.

Pitt followed that drive up with a long, methodical 16-play, 85-yard drive that ate up over six minutes of the clock. They converted several end-of-down situations, including a 4th & goal from the five where Holstein rushed one in to grab the lead.

Greene came through in the clutch using both his arms and legs to march down the field when the Mountaineers needed it most. With 25 seconds remaining, he placed the ball in a tight window to Rodney Gallagher III for the go-ahead score.

The Panthers had plenty of time to make something happen with all three of their timeouts and with two huge gains through the air, they had it at the West Virginia 17 for the final snap of the game. Holstein threw it in the end zone as time expired, but was intercepted by Ayden Garnes to seal the deal for WVU.

2024 simulated results tracker

vs. Penn State L 15-21
vs. FCS East (Albany) W 45-0
at Pitt W 21-17
vs. Kansas
at Oklahoma State
vs. Iowa State
vs. Kansas State
at Arizona
at Cincinnati
vs. Baylor
vs. UCF
at Texas Tech

2024 actual results

vs. Penn State L 12-34
vs. FCS East (Albany) W 49-14
at Pitt
vs. Kansas
at Oklahoma State
vs. Iowa State
vs. Kansas State
at Arizona
at Cincinnati
vs. Baylor
vs. UCF
at Texas Tech

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