Ross Hodge’s Backyard Brawl Comments Are Exactly What WVU Fans Wanted to Hear

Over the last decade or so, WVU has had the upper hand in the Backyard Brawl, and since the days of the annual home-and-home in the Big East are behind us, there's even more pressure to win, knowing the next opportunity won't come for another year.

For the fourth time in as many years, the West Virginia Mountaineers will be led by a different coach in the Backyard Brawl. With so much turnover at the position, there's always a concern that the man in charge may not understand the magnitude of this rivalry.

Ross Hodge has only been on the job for a little over seven months and has only coached in three games, but he is already well aware of the significance of this one.

"Even prior to (the football game). Forty-eight hours after I got the job, Emery, my daughter, was sending me a TikTok or a YouTube short of Sweet Caroline and the football game, so it doesn't take long to be associated with this program and understand how important that game is."

Regardless of what happens inside Hope Coliseum on Thursday night, it's just one data point of a 31-game season. As we witnessed last season, the outcome of this game doesn't necessarily determine how good you'll be by season's end. WVU lost to Pitt 86-62, yet finished 19-13 and should have made the NCAA Tournament. Pitt, on the other hand, went 17-15 and came nowhere close to an at-large bid.

"Two things can be true at once. It can be true that it is a big game; it does mean a lot to a lot of people. It's certainly the biggest game that we've been in as a group up to this point," Hodge said. "The other truth is that at 8:30 or whatever time that game is over, they're not going to be handing out a national championship trophy or a Big 12 championship trophy, and you'll have a lot of season left. But to say 'Oh, it's just another game,' that's just not real. The truth is, this game means a lot to a lot of people.

The longer Hodge is the head of the program, the more this rivalry will mean to him, and obviously, the more he'll understand it. But for a first-year coach who has yet to be a part of it, he's got a pretty good grasp, stating after the Lehigh game that "It would be fake and phony to say it's just another game."

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