A burning question: Pitt vs. WVU
BOB
HERTZEL
While they have taken enough grief from all their pompous elders this past week, today we offer the most biting criticism all aimed at the arson majors who attend West Virginian University.
What a mindless, shortsighted act it was, to set 45 or so fires after the Mountaineers upset Virginia Tech in Blacksburg on Wednesday night. What could they have been thinking?
I mean, if West Virginia beats Pittsburgh this weekend, what are they going to burn? On that frightful, delightful fiery Thursday morning all the couches in town went from asses to ashes and most of the tables went from dust to dust.
It isn't easy to find new things to burn just 10 days after you've cremated every flammable item within city limits whose purpose isn't to keep a can of beer icy cold.
Tch! So shortsighted.
This is the week where a victory really should be celebrated.
This is the week of the Backyard Brawl and for the first time since 1989 has the game held great meaning to both Pitt and WVU. That year the teams were so evenly matched that they tied, 31-31, and both finished at 8-3-1.
The winner, you see, almost certainly will find itself on the banks of the St. John's River in Jacksonville, Fla., for the Gator Bowl.
A nice trip for the players.
A spectacular Christmas vacation for the students, provided they don't go out and burn their cars if the Mountaineers win.
And for the administration, well, the Gator Bowl probably means about $1 million extra in the coffers, money that could be use to ... eh, purchase flame retardant for all the furniture throughout town.
For the past several years the Backyard Brawl has been a myth as a rivalry. Oh, there was a sense of satisfaction in '99 for WVU to whip up on the Panthers, 52-21, and keep them from becoming bowl eligible but all it did was give the Mountaineers a 4-7 record.
Conversely, Pitt's triple overtime victory over WVU in 1997 salvaged a bowl bid for the Panthers but it came against a Mountaineer team that was in the midst of losing four of its last five games.
This year, though, it is shaping up as a "Brawl" to enthrall.
Both teams are 8-3. Both teams are 5-1 in the Big East. Both teams fought undefeated, top-ranked Miami down to the wire before losing.
All season Rich Rodriguez, the WVU coach, has been pointing out that "the more you win, the higher the stakes get" and they don't get much higher than this.
Not only is a chance to remain alive for the conference championship involved (Miami could lose it's final two games and if the do they'll probably burn down Miami, not in celebration but in anger), but also the Big East's Coach of the Year Award would seem to be at stake.
While Miami's Larry Coker certainly would merit consideration, considering he has gone unbeaten despite losing 11 draft choices to the NFL, he was playing from a deck full of aces all season.
Harris and Rodriguez, on the other hand, have had to do a lot more creative coaching than Coker to arrive at this point. Harris slowly built his Pitt team into national prominence and did a magnificent job of developing quartering Rod Rutherford.
Rodriguez, on the other hand, turned a 3-8 season into an 8-3 season by altering his staff coaching methods, by revamping his defense to fit his needs, by realizing his strength was on the ground and not in the air and by sticking to it.
Now the two teams collide and we expect that Rodriguez will give his team a fiery pre-game speech, asking to play like their hai ... eh, couch is on fire.
