There are few rivalries that measure up to The Backyard Brawl.
WVU football and Pitt football have long been bitter enemies, meeting on the gridiron in well over 100 different match-ups throughout their program histories. Now, the Mountaineers are set to welcome the Panthers into Milan Puskar Stadium for the 108th Backyard Brawl.
For Rich Rodriguez, a Grant Town, W.Va native and WVU football alum who also coached in seven editions of the rivalry during his first stint coaching the Mountaineers, it's a pretty important game. Not to mention that last one he participated in – the infamous ‘13-9’ loss that cost WVU a national championship game appearance – was something he describes as “the worst moment of my professional career.”
In fact, when questioned about the Brawl and its meaning during his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Rodriguez seems to believe there is no single more important game that ever lands on WVU’s schedule than The Backyard Brawl.
“I think it's one of the greatest rivalries in sports…there’s a lot of intensity with it, and you never see any love lost between the fanbases. It’s always, to me, the biggest game on your schedule when you’re at West Virginia.”
WVU HC Rich Rodriguez on what separates The Backyard Brawl from other rivalries he's been a part of, such as Michigan-OSU and Arizona-Arizona State: "I've told people everywhere I've been, I've been in a bunch of rivalries and I don't know if there's any more intense than this."
— RedditCFB (@RedditCFB) September 9, 2025
Rodriguez was later asked about how The Brawl compares to other college football rivalries he’s been a part of, including The Territorial Cup (Arizona-Arizona State) and The Game (Michigan-Ohio State). And while his answer to that question might upset fans of some other programs, it's an answer that rings true to West Virginia fans.
“It’s funny, because every place has a rivalry. At Arizona, it was the in-state thing, and Michigan, Ohio State, obviously they have that one. But I’ve told people everywhere I’ve been, I’ve been in a bunch of rivalries and there’s none that’s more intense than this,” he said.
“And I think what’s happening is maybe it's not as known nationally as a rivalry as probably what it should be. I would tell folks, even when I was at Michigan, that, ‘hey, I know the Michigan-Ohio State rivalry is big, but it's hard to get more intense than West Virginia-Pitt.’”