Texas Tech travels to West Virginia for Big 12 opener; Mountaineers’ QB Garrett Greene questionable
Texas Tech (1-2) at West Virginia (2-1), Saturday, 3:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+) Line: Texas Tech by 6 1/2, according to FanDuel SportsBook Series Record: Tied 6-6. WHAT’S AT STAKE West Virginia is on a two-game winning streak, and coach Neal Brown has yet to win three in a row. Now...
Latrobe’s Alex Tatsch earns scholarship offer from West Virginia
Alex Tatsch spent a perfect late-summer day in Morgantown. He looked around a college campus, watched the Backyard Brawl and came home with a souvenir: a scholarship offer. West Virginia extended an offer to the Latrobe junior football standout Saturday, stamping his potential as a Power 5 prospect. After an...
Analysis: West Virginia defense knew Pitt QB Phil Jurkovec ‘wasn’t that good at his job’
When random fans complain about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec or rain boos upon him from high above the playing surface, that’s never good. If Jurkovec continues to struggle next Saturday against North Carolina, you can imagine what Acrisure Stadium will sound like. Yet no matter how hard the fans scream...
West Virginia backup QB Nicco Marchiol displays cool nerves in Backyard Brawl victory
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — About midway through the first quarter of the Backyard Brawl, West Virginia coach Neal Brown suddenly was working with a highly condensed playbook. His starting quarterback, Garrett Greene, had left the game with an apparent leg injury, and in Greene’s place entered Nicco Marchiol, a redshirt freshman...
Phil Jurkovec struggles in Pitt’s Backyard Brawl loss to West Virginia
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Pitt tried to be the bully Saturday night in the 106th renewal of the Backyard Brawl at Milan Puskar Stadium. Instead, the 17-6 loss to West Virginia ended with questions about Pitt quarterback Phil Jurkovec from everyone but coach Pat Narduzzi. Whether he’s ready to acknowledge it...
Before their teams do battle, Pitt and WVU fans keeping things friendly in Morgantown
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Before Pitt and West Virginia took the field Saturday night at Milan Puskar Stadium, an ocean of tailgaters helped create a college gameday atmosphere about as good as it gets. That much was predictable. Saturday’s contest between the Panthers and Mountaineers, the 106th installment of the Backyard...
WVU players, coaches expecting 106th installment of Backyard Brawl to be a dogfight
Last weekend, violent lightning storms in the Morgantown, W.Va., area brought on a delay of nearly two hours that paused play between the Mountaineers and Duquesne. By the time the weather calmed to a light drizzle, only a fraction of the 50,037 fans who originally filed into Milan Puskar Stadium...
West Virginia eager for the chance to host a rebooted Backyard Brawl against Pitt
The Backyard Brawl between Pitt (1-1) and West Virginia (1-1) returned a year ago in Pittsburgh. Both teams have already lost a game this season. But enthusiasm for the next chapter of the rivalry, set to be written at Mountaineer Field on Saturday night (7:30 p.m.), hasn’t waned at all....
WVU coach Neal Brown recalls salute from Pitt fans last year at Acrisure Stadium
Neal Brown gets it. He knows all too well — from personal experience — that the passion triggered by the Backyard Brawl is real. It was a year ago at Acrisure Stadium when Brown, the West Virginia coach, walked onto the field before the game against Pitt. His son, Dax,...
West Virginia dominates post-weather delay to pummel Duquesne for 1st win of season
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – From start to finish, the first football meeting between West Virginia and Duquesne in 88 years took over five hours to complete. That was due to a severe weather delay caused by lightning that paused the game for 1 hour, 54 minutes about midway through the second...
West Virginia faces FCS Duquesne after Penn State blowout loss
Duquesne (1-0) at West Virginia (0-1), Saturday, 6 p.m. ET (ESPN+) Line: No line, according to FanDuel SportsBook. Series record: West Virginia leads 4-3-1. WHAT’S AT STAKE West Virginia has a rugged September schedule with the only potential breather coming Saturday night against the Championship Subdivision Dukes. The Mountaineers are...
Duquesne coach Jerry Schmitt: ‘Embrace the opportunity’ as Dukes visit a Power 5 foe in West Virginia
For the returning players on Duquesne’s football team, Saturday’s jump in competition as they travel down I-79 to face West Virginia will be nothing new. They were on the Dukes’ roster last year when the team visited FBS schools such as Florida State and Hawaii. Some still remain from the...
James Franklin responds to comments by West Virginia’s Neal Brown on Penn State’s late touchdown
Those who wagered on Penn State to cover the 21-point spread on Saturday night were thrilled with how the final few seconds shook out. But apparently West Virginia head coach Neal Brown was not too pleased. The Nittany Lions, with their backups on the field, scored a touchdown with six...
Drew Allar shines in 1st start as Penn State takes care of West Virginia
STATE COLLEGE — With a mere flick of his wrist, rocket-armed Drew Allar began a new era in Happy Valley. This is what the 6-foot-5, 242-pound quarterback’s teammates and coaches gushed about all summer. The sophomore signal caller can make it look easy. Allar, who sat behind five-year starter Sean...
No. 7 Penn State ready to go against West Virginia with QB Drew Allar, decorated supporting cast
STATE COLLEGE — James Franklin has a pretty good idea of what he will see from quarterback Drew Allar on Saturday night. Penn State’s coach saw glimpses last season, and he has seen it all summer. The strong-armed sophomore is ready to take over what could be one of the...
Big 12 preview: League goes from endangered to bigger before No. 11 Texas, No. 20 Oklahoma leave for SEC
The Big 12 was on the endangered list again two summers ago when the only remaining conference members with national championships set off another round of realignment when they said they were switching leagues. With Texas and Oklahoma going into their final season in the Big 12, the conference is...
Coach Neal Brown gets another chance to show improvement at West Virginia, but it could be his last
Neal Brown was allowed to keep his job at West Virginia after another lackluster season in 2022. Now it’s time for the fifth-year coach to show some improvement. The task will be tough with a brutal September schedule. Several key players transferred after last season, and the Mountaineers are picked...
Former WVU coach Huggins enters diversion program after drunken driving arrest
Former West Virginia men’s basketball coach Bob Huggins has entered a 12-month diversion program to resolve a drunken driving arrest. Huggins had been scheduled for a formal arraignment on Thursday. According to court records in Pittsburgh, that hearing was canceled last month after he was accepted into the program. Under...
Coaches facing heat in 2023 include WVU’s Brown, Indiana’s Allen, Missouri’s Drinkwitz
The silly season in college football, that time when coaches get fired and hired, seems to never stop. The dismissal of Pat Fitzgerald by Northwestern after an investigation into hazing in the program kicked off this year’s carousel. College administrators are also embracing the quick hook more than ever before....
Pitt’s Jeff Capel releases nonconference schedule, pleased Backyard Brawl with WVU will continue
Pitt released its 11-game nonconference basketball schedule Wednesday, and coach Jeff Capel is pleased that it features four opponents from power conferences. The highlight will be the hardwood version of the Backyard Brawl against West Virginia on Dec. 6 in Morgantown. It will be the 190th game in the series...
WVU coach Neal Brown on being picked last in Big 12: ‘We won’t finish there’
Neal Brown didn’t even wait for the question to be asked. During his opening remarks at Big 12 football media days Thursday, the West Virginia coach immediately stared down the elephant in the room – the fact that his Mountaineers had been picked, in a preseason vote of media members,...
Legal headaches just starting at Northwestern, West Virginia with Fitzgerald, Huggins, experts say
The legal headaches could only be starting for Pat Fitzgerald and Bob Huggins — and their schools. Fitzgerald was fired this week as Northwestern’s football coach following hazing allegations — but after the school had first announced a two-week suspension. West Virginia said Huggins had resigned after the Hall of...
Pitt wrestlers, WVU grad headline MMA fight card at ‘Brawl in The Burgh 17’
Wrestling is a huge part of a mixed martial artist’s repertoire. If fighters don’t grow up on the mats, they invest time to enhance this part of their game. “The two pathways in wrestling post-college are coaching or competing, looking to make an Olympic and World team,” said Mike Wilkins,...
First Call: Minkah Fitzpatrick finally tops best-safety list; Saquon Barkley to ‘pull a Le’Veon?’
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick had spent most the offseason so far picking up plenty of figurative silver medals in the ultimately meaningless realm of “Best Of” lists. • In May, it was Pro Football Network that rated Fitzpatrick as the NFL’s second-best safety behind the Los Angeles Chargers’ Derwin...
Blue Jays draft WVU center fielder Braden Berry in 8th round
After the Pittsburgh Pirates selected right-handed pitcher Carlson Reed in the fourth round of the MLB Draft, his teammate, junior outfielder Braden Barry, went to the Toronto Blue Jays in the eighth round (No. 244 overall) on Monday. They are the 106th and 107th Mountaineers chosen all-time, including 37 under...
