Phil Steele Thinks WVU’s Rally Against Pitt Could Be the Spark They Needed

Things looked bleak for the Mountaineers at one point in the fourth quarter of last week's game against Pitt in the Backyard Brawl. After leading and controlling the first half and change, West Virginia quickly found itself in a 10-point deficit with just a handful of minutes to work with.

They dug deep and not only erased the deficit to send the game to overtime with 11 seconds left, but carried that momentum over into the overtime frame, eventually cueing up, "Take Me Home, Country Roads.

West Virginia's defense continued to do its thing, giving the offense some late-game opportunities, and when they needed to move the ball and score it, QB Nicco Marchiol found his rhythm and led the incredible comeback, going 9/11 on the final two drives of regulation.

On this morning's episode of In the Gun, college football expert Phil Steele predicted that Kansas would beat the Mountaineers this weekend, but before we cut him loose, I asked him how last week's result changes his view on this bunch.

Here's what he said.

“The way the team responded at the end, I think, was huge. Rich Rod pointed it out in the postgame when he said that this is a team that’s going to fight you to the very end. We learned that about West Virginia this past week. Now, what I think what that does is any game that they’re down in the third quarter, they’re like, hey, hey, remember the Pitt game? We came back and won it. I think it gives them a belief factor here. I think that the win is going to be huge for the rest of the year in the third and fourth quarter of games in maybe that they’re trailing. The schedule is brutal. But the fact that they got that big win over Pitt, with the comeback, is going to keep them alive late in games and give this team belief.”

In all likelihood, the Mountaineers will have to lean on that belief this Saturday when they take on a Kansas team that's looking to get rid of the sour taste in its mouth, losing to their rival, Missouri, two weeks ago.

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