Pitt Coaches Know Backyard Brawl is All About Emotion

PITTSBURGH -- The layers of the Pitt vs. West Virginia rivalry - from the proximity to the contrasting environments around either school to the rough-and-tumble, underdog attitude that the entire region hopes to embody - combine to create a bitter clash on the gridiron. This game is simply different and demands heightened focus and energy from its participants.

There are very immediate and concrete concerns for the Panthers as kickoff looms, but in addition, the normal study of scheme and fine-tuning of technique is a crash course on what this game means. The gravity of a collision between Panthers and Mountaineers might not fully register for a 19-year-old player who was too young to remember the Brawl at its peak, but it does for their older coaches.

Pitt defensive coordinator Randy Bates - who grew up almost equidistant from Pittsburgh and Morgantown in New Concord, Ohio - knows the Backyard Brawl intimately and has helped bring his players up to speed.

"I know a lot about it," Bates said. "I've seen it, I've watched it, I never actually been to a game but my papa was a coach and I would watch the game every year. We know of the rivalry. It's been a few years but I'm old enough to remember those games so I know how they go."

Offensive coordinator Frank Cignetti is even more deeply embedded in the Brawl. He was born in Pittsburgh, spent part of his childhood in Morgantown as the son of a Mountaineers coach and is now in his second stint as offensive coordinator of the Panthers. He's seen the rivalry from a number of different angles and is perhaps more qualified than anyone to speak to the game's significance.

"As a kid growing up in Morgantown, it was awesome. My father became the head coach at West Virginia, my brother played at WVU. I have great memories of Mountaineer football and living in Morgantown. ... We've been on both sides of the rivalry. ... This game has always been special."

Cignetti and Bates know what to expect. A sold-out Acrisure Stadium awaits Pitt on Thursday night. Anticipation has been building ever since the renewal of this series was announced in 2015 and the tension will reach a boiling point at kickoff. Bates wants passion from his players but needs it concentrated - energy is necessary but blind anger is a liability.

"We tend to play on emotion on defense," Bates said. "We don't want to be emotional, but we want to play with emotion. That's the way I coach, that's the way our staff coaches and that's the way players play."

To prepare his players, Bates and the coaching staff have been reminding them of one shortcoming from last season - a 38-34 loss at home to Miami in which the Panthers drifted into the "emotional" territory that Bates and head coach Pat Narduzzi fear.

"You want to have extra juice, but you have to have your composure, too," Narduzzi said. "It's a brawl, a fight. But you have to have composure. We didn't have great composure against Miami last year, personal fouls which drove me nuts. I don't want to get them too hyped because they have to play smart and not get out of control."

Make no mistake, the Panthers are confident, not hesitant. Bates believes his team has the maturity and big-game experience to manage the shock and awe of opening night under the lights with a bitter rival on the other sideline.

"We've shown them clips of experiences they had in the past and quite frankly, the nice thing is when you have as many guys returning, those kids have been in those situations where they were probably too emotional at some point," Bates said. "You can show them that and let them learn from that."

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