WVU Stops Pitt Cold in Backyard Brawl

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. -- This one won't quite make up for 2007 -- actually nothing could ever make up for that one for West Virginia fans -- but Friday's 19-16 victory against Pittsburgh was heaven, almost.

There were no national title hopes crushed on this chilly night at Milan Puskar Stadium like in 2007 when the 29-point underdog Panthers shocked WVU 13-9. Heck, West Virginia's victory didn't even hurt the Panthers' chances to win the Big East.

Still, it was a victory the Mountaineers really, really needed.

"This was big, this was really big," said a raspy-voiced Bill Stewart, who still felt the effects from a night of screaming in 36-degree weather. "And it was big for our seniors and it was big because it was Pitt."

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The No. 8-ranked Panthers (9-2, 5-1 Big East) had won the last two meetings in the Backyard Brawl and were seeking their first three-game winning streak against WVU since winning seven consecutive from 1976-84. Unlike other big-time rivalries (Texas-Texas A&M, Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and Florida-Florida State), the Brawl hasn't been dominated by one team. In the past 44 meetings before Friday night, West Virginia owned a slim 22-20-2 edge, but with the Panthers' past two victories -- the 2007 stunner and 19-15 last year -- and this year's top 10 ranking, Pitt seemed to be taking control of the series.

Not any longer.

"It's a great rivalry," WVU senior safety Nate Sowers said. "It's tough, physical football, every single year. The coaches are recruiting against each other, trying to get kids there. You get to meet the guys that are going there on the recruiting visits.

"They go to the same places we eat. It's like a high school rivalry, you feel like you know each other. It's a good time."

The good times between the teams located about 75 miles away was nearing an end. Only 3.4 seconds remained when West Virginia called a time out. Tied at 16, the Mountaineers were at Pitt's 26. Freshman Tyler Bitancurt trotted onto the field. Before Bitancurt could get off his kick, Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt used a timeout. On this frigid night, you literally could ice the kicker.

"I'll never forget that moment, no matter how much pain I'm going through. Those are my brothers on top of me."
- West Virginia kicker Tyler Bitancurt Seconds later, Bitancurt found himself buried under a pile of blue jerseys.

"I think I broke my sternum, I couldn't breathe for a little bit," said Bitancurt after his game-winning 43-yard field goal slipped inside the left goal post. "I'll never forget that moment, no matter how much pain I'm going through. Those are my brothers on top of me."

When Bitancurt emerged from under the mountain of Mountaineers, tears were streaming down his cheeks.

"Pretty much right after the kick (the tears started), it means so much to me," said Bitancurt, who made all four field goal attempts from 20, 43, 39 and 43 yards. "I know how much this football program means to this state. I know what this game meant to my seniors, we went undefeated at home this year and that's big. That's the first time in years we did that.

"To play Pitt, that's a big time game. I was tearing up because mainly I was thinking about my family and the people who got me here. To finally show them how hard I worked and that their help got me here."

Stewart said he "personally recruited" Bitancurt to West Virginia. However, early on against Pitt, Stewart had no use for his field goal kicker, even though Bitancurt had made eight of nine field goals this season.

Still locked in a scoreless battle in the second quarter -- the Backyard Brawl had turned into a Backyard Crawl for the offenses -- Stewart opted to go for it on a pair of fourth downs instead of putting points on the board and taking the lead.

The first time was fourth-and-goal from the 1 and quarterback Jarrett Brown was promptly sacked for a 10-yard loss with 14:09 remaining in the second quarter.

Then on West Virginia's next drive, Stewart -- after taking a time-out to think about it -- bypassed another field goal attempt, deciding to go for fourth-and-9 from the 28. Brown managed a whopping one-yard gain this time.

"I wanted to win," Stewart said. "I didn't want to kick field goals against the eighth-ranked team in the country. I wanted to win. Coaches were yelling at me, I said I'm going for the jugular, I don't care. When we scored to go up [10 in the fourth quarter], 'woo' that made me feel better. I was not going to settle for field goals. I was playing to win, best I knew how."

That's part of the reason Stewart's short tenure has been so maddening for Mountaineer fans at times. The Mountaineers have been successful -- now 18-7 under Stewart -- but maybe not as dominant as (dare we mention that four-letter word "Rich") former WVU coach Rich Rodriguez was before bolting for Michigan.

In the final four years under Rodriguez, the Mountaineers were a fixture in the AP Poll -- ranked every week except for an eight-week stretch from the final 2004 poll to the first seven weeks of 2005. But since Stewart was named head coach following the 2008 Fiesta Bowl win against Oklahoma, the Mountaineers had been ranked only five weeks. In those five weeks, the Mountaineers were only 1-3 against FBS opponents, needing a last-minute Noel Devine touchdown to edge UConn for the lone win.

The Mountaineers haven't had -- as Stewart called them -- many "signature wins."

"I know a lot aren't signature wins, but they're wins," he said.

Friday night was a signature win.

"We're not as talented, maybe, as a lot of people," Stewart said. "We don't win very pretty. We're going to try to work on that. But what we do, seem to stumble through and bounce into and roll around in, we find ways to win."

This was the first time in five years the Mountaineers' starting quarterback was not named Pat White. In the preseason a lot of the so-called experts predicted a down year from the Mountaineers. Yet, Friday the Mountaineers did something no other team in school history had accomplished in 16 years.

They went undefeated at home. And they got a little payback on the Panthers at the same time.

"They put it to us the last two years," WVU junior cornerback Brandon Hogan said. "We owed them."

Contact FanHouse reporter Brett McMurphy at brettmcmurphy@gmail.com