Pitt HC Pat Narduzzi Shares Thoughts on Neal Brown, WVU

With the 107th edition of the Backyard Brawl days away from kicking off, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi shared his thoughts about his nearby rival. And either not wanting to provide any bulletin board material or unveiling his true opinion, the often outspoken Narduzzi offered some praise for Neal Brown and WVU.

“They’ve got a great football team. Neal Brown’s a great football coach. He’s calling the plays and schematically, he’s very similar to (Scott) Satterfield. I have a ton of respect for him as a coach,” said Narduzzi on Monday.

“He does some really good stuff and will challenge you in all three phases of the game. They’ll be very multiple on defense, running a lot of different fronts and coverages. They do a great job there. They’ve got 11 transfers in the 2-deep on defense. They should be better every week,” added Narduzzi about what he expects from West Virginia schematically in the game.

Narduzzi then talked about Garrett Greene and the WVU offense. In an ironic twist, this season’s game will be the first time Pitt will truly experience facing Greene. The Mountaineer signal caller served as the backup in 2022 and then suffered an injury early on in the 2023 game in Morgantown.

While West Virginia won without Greene last year, Narduzzi expects to see a different offense with Greene under center this time.

“It all starts with their quarterback Garrett Greene. Him and Donaldson in the backfield with Jahiem White as well. They like to run the ball and throw RPOs. We’re going to see all of that. They’ve got talented receivers out there, too. Deep ball guys, intermediate level guys, a lot of guys who can make plays. We’re going to see everything they’ve got.”

Narduzzi, who is in the midst of his 10th season at Pitt, also talked about the significance of the Backyard Brawl and rivalry games.

“There’s maybe not many more important rivalry games in the country,” Narduzzi said about the Backyard Brawl. “You guys can talk about the River City Rivalry. We all know that’s not really a rivalry.”

He then touched on how his team will prepare for a big rivalry game.

“We’re going to prepare them [the team] for the noise we’re going to get this weekend. Preparation is everything. 73 players were on that trip last year. But we’re educating the team on the rivalry for those who don’t know. I told them a story about rivalries back when I was at Michigan State. Every year there’s a different flavor to a rivalry. This game this weekend, this is why you play football. This is why you coach football. This is it.”

Kickoff for West Virginia (1-1) and Pitt (2-0) on Saturday is set for 3:30 pm ET from Acrisure Stadium. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

WVU opened the week as a slight road favorite.

For a related story, WVU head coach Neal Brown explained why the Backyard Brawl needs to be played as often as possible.