Sunday Morning Thoughts: Grit, Guts, and Glory

Sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to figure out who you are in college football. You've heard the saying, "a team's biggest improvement is from Week 1 to Week 2," but in West Virginia's case, it was the improvement from Week 2 to Week 3.

All of that energy, optimism, and the nostalgia of the early 2000s quickly wore off after the Mountaineers surprisingly fell to the Ohio Bobcats last weekend, 17-10. Losing the game is one thing, but to lose the game the way they did with zero answers on offense and two injuries to two key players, it painted a really dark picture for what the remainder of the 2025 season could be.

That was until Saturday night.

I said all of last week that if there was one game you wanted to play right after a loss like that, it would be the Backyard Brawl. You won't waste much time dwelling on what happened in Athens because you're going to be so hyper-focused on Pitt and doing everything possible to be locked in and win that game.

West Virginia had them right where they wanted them at the half, in a low-scoring rock fight. Sure, they missed some opportunities and a whacky end to the half may have cost WVU points, but still, it felt like they were in a great spot. When they went up 14-3 in the third quarter, the momentum felt completely on WVU's side.

And then, some things happened. Pitt hit a big pass play, helping lead to a quick answer, and a two-point conversion, followed by a pair of interceptions thrown by freshman QB Scotty Fox. All of a sudden, things looked bleak with the Mountaineers down 10 and just a handful of minutes to go.

Zac Alley's defense did their thing, as expected. It came down to Nicco Marchiol leading a pair of scoring drives and boom! He did it. With just 11 seconds to go, he found tight end Grayson Barnes in the end zone to send the game to overtime.

Marchiol spent the majority of the third quarter on the bench watching Fox and Jaylen Henderson. He could have checked out of the game mentally, but he didn't. He was thrown back onto the field and made some gusty throws and clutch throws, at that, to power West Virginia to victory.

Pitt had this team on the ropes and couldn't deliver the knockout blow. West Virginia just kept jabbing their way to the center of the ring before smacking the Panthers down to the canvas, winning the final Backyard Brawl until 2029 and giving Rich Rodriguez his redemption from that December night in 2007.

Remember how many times this offseason Rodriguez would respond to questions about expectations for this upcoming season with "The fans may not know the X's and O's of what's going on, but I can promise you one thing, West Virginia fans will notice that we will play hard."

And boy, did they ever. They played with emotion all game long, but channeled it properly, not allowing it to lead to a penalty impact of what happened during the play. From Tye Edwards plowing through defenders on 20+ carries, to the defense limiting Pitt to 46 yards rushing, to Marchiol planting his foot into the ground as the answer at QB, and to the offensive line, which had its moments of struggles, but got push when they needed it; it was a win built on grit and guts.

I'm not sure of what to expect from this team next week in Lawrence or for the remainder of the season, but one thing is certain — "they will play their ass off," as Rodriguez says.

It's a night that will forever be remembered and will be considered one of the all-time great games in Milan Puskar Stadium history. It's been a long time since the fans have been able to feel this much joy, so soak it in. You've got a football team that's going to play hard, and with this win, they can believe they can do anything.

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