WVU coach Rich Rodriguez gets Backyard Brawl ’25 off to a thunderous start
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Rich Rodriguez opened his second tenure as West Virginia football coach with a volley that went thundering north on I-79.
Hired Thursday to return to coach his alma mater — a team he led to four Big East championships from 2001-07 — Rodriguez made an appearance Friday on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
The Backyard Brawl is one of the greatest, most colorful, historic, HEATED rivalries in sports! Victories are legendary, losses a *lifetime* of pain. I applaud the pettiness here and implore @ESPNCFB to send GameDay to the Brawl’s 108th edition next September! #H2P https://t.co/AB795RmJAq
— EJ Borghetti (@PittBorghetti) December 13, 2024
The Backyard Brawl between WVU and Pitt, one of college football’s greatest rivalries, was a topic of conversation between Rodriguez and McAfee, his former kicker with the Mountaineers.
The next Backyard Brawl — Sept. 13, 2025, in Morgantown — catches the eye by its mere date (9-13), which is the opposite of the 13-9 Pitt upset victory against WVU as a 281⁄2-point underdog Dec. 1, 2007. That defeat knocked the Mountaineers out of a national championship shot and was the last game for Rodriguez as West Virginia’s coach. Two weeks later, he left Morgantown to become head coach at Michigan.
During the interview, McAfee, who famously missed field goals from 20 and 32 yards in that game, told Rodriguez the next Brawl is “obviously, the football gods putting something up on the tee, potentially, early in your first year.”
“How do you view the thought of that particular game?”
Rodriguez responded with an answer that will live with him for many months.
“I probably misspoke a little bit earlier when I said the two worst four-letter words were soft and lazy,” he said. “I left out Pitt.”
While an audience full of West Virginia fans chanted with vigor, McAfee nodded approvingly and couldn’t help himself when he added, “You do know that particular school literally wins nothing. They hang their hat on beating us in that one game, legitimately. That’s it. Let’s make sure Sept. 13 that kind of all goes away.”
In the interest of fair play, TribLive contacted two former Pitt players for their reaction to Rodriguez’s comments.
Former Pitt linebacker Scott McKillop, who, in 2007, stopped WVU running back Steve Slaton inches short of a first down on a fourth-and-3 play in the fourth quarter, said he was “shocked” to hear a Pitt reference on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
“However, if we are playing word games, some four-letter words that I associate with Rich Rod are quit, lose and fail.”
Sitting quietly at home, former Pitt tight end Dorin Dickerson, co-host of “The Morning Show” on Pitt’s flagship station 93.7 FM, had three words of warning for Rodriguez and the Mountaineers.
“They better win,” he said.