Sunday Morning Thoughts: Happy Times Return to Morgantown

MORGANTOWN, W.V. - Even if it's only for a night, West Virginia fans can feel good about their football team, and head coach Neal Brown can go to sleep with a major sigh of relief after taking down Pitt, 17-6 in the Backyard Brawl.

It wasn't the prettiest game, but the Mountaineers were able to make just enough plays to win the game to improve to 2-1 on the season.

After Garrett Greene went down on the second series of the game, Brown had to adjust his game plan on the fly with redshirt freshman Nicco Marchiol leading the charge offensively. Brown made notes throughout the first half on a sheet of notebook paper and filled about half of it with plays Marchiol was comfortable with for the remainder of the game. It was a run-heavy approach with a healthy mix of RPO (run-pass option).

West Virginia ran the ball 51 times and threw it just 11 times for a grand total of 60 yards. Pitt leaned on the run until they fell behind two scores and even then, Narduzzi tried to keep it on the ground as much as he could with Phil Jurkovec struggling to hit receivers, completing just 8-of-20 attempts for 81 yards and three picks.

It felt like a game from the 60s or 70s, but hey, I don't think Neal Brown and Co. are all that worried about the fashion in which they win games at this point. Last night's win in the Brawl will go a long way in this team getting to the six-win mark for bowl eligibility. Sitting at 2-1 is exactly where this team should be and absolutely needed to be. Entering next week's game against Texas Tech at 1-2 and a ticked-off fan base would intensify the pressure inside the program.

I along with many others have fairly criticized Neal Brown throughout his tenure. Just last week, I stated on the Between The Eers show that we haven't seen a really all-around well-coached game since he arrived in 2019 where he played a big part in the team's win. Last night, that happened. After Pitt drove right down the field and kicked a field goal, WVU's defense made some adjustments and stifled the Panther offense for the remainder of the night. Offensively, to see your starting QB go down that early and still win the game, that's a credit to the head coach and you have to give credit where it is due.

Although it's still very early in the season, this has to be the best West Virginia fans have felt in a long time. You're 2-1, you just beat your hated rival in an electric atmosphere, and WVU has now won both games that Nicco Marchiol played significant snaps in. There's a lot of football left, but you can take a couple of days to enjoy this one.

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