Pitt Panthers Football: Pitt, WVU Square Off In Backyard Brawl of Discontent

Charles Dickens would simply have written "It's the worst of times" to describe today's less than awe-inspiring battle between Dave Wannsted's mistake-riddled Panthers and Bill Stewart's offensively-challenged Mountaineers.

A growing majority of Pitt fans think Dave Wannstedt's hiring by disregarded and forgotten Pitt A.D. Jeff Long was a mistake. Most West Virginia fans find unimaginative Stewart to be just plain offensive.

At least WVU fans have Oliver Luck on their side. To be heard, Pitt fans in the "lunatic fringe" have to work their way up through Pitt's archaic, autocratic chain of command to Chancellor Nordenberg, 

Nordenberg has been a real Pitt champion by raising Pitt's academic rankings and status. The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center has flourished under "Nordy's" leadership.

When it comes to picking football coaches, Nordy is clueless.  He also fails to identify what the proper relationship should be between the head of a university and the head of its football program.

Review the concept of nepotism please, Nordy.

Must be quite a sight to see when Nordy and Wanny breeze by the common folk in their Beamers.  Fortunately for Nordy, he can hide in his palatial suite. Unfortunately for Pitt fans, they have to see Wannstedt every football Saturday.

Some of these fans are opting out, forcing this rumor to inch through the Pitt blogs: The Pitt administration only cares about money. If you don't like the direction of the program under Wannstedt and Pederson, don't buy tickets, don't go to games.

This explains why Nordy's other favorite royal in the Pitt administration, Steve Fired-From-Nebraska Pederson, had to run ads in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette trying to unload unsold tickets for today's brawl.

Can you imagine Notre Dame taking out ads to sell tickets to the USC game?

Back in the day, the West Virginia game was just an accent on the Pitt schedule, a mid-October marker that was much more of a big deal to the farmers and snake-charmers down south than the city-loving Panthers of Pitt.

Notre Dame and Penn State were the recipients of all the Pitt fans' hate. This smug, condescending saying describes Pitt fans' feelings towards the Hoopies: "We don't hate you as much as you hate us." 

Penn State has moved on and Notre Dame refuses to join the Big East for football.  Now the Panthers are stuck with the Mounties. Who else is there to hate with passion?

As a rival, West Virginia has it all over Penn State. The Nits hoops program is a disaster but West Virginia has a first class men's basketball team. The Pitt-WVU hoops battles are becoming as legendary as the football games.

Fans should look past all the negativity surrounding the 103rd Brawl and focus on what's at stake:

To lock up an undisputed Big East title and a Fiesta Bowl bid, Pitt must beat West Virginia today and Cincinnati next week. West Virginia's chances for the conference title and Fiesta bid depend upon beating Pitt today, Rutgers next week and hoping UConn loses to Cincinnati or South Florida.

No doubt commissioner Marinatto is secretly rooting for WVU to win out and represent the Big East in the Fiesta Bowl. Ranked 27th in the AP poll with victories in their past two BCS bowl appearances, West Virginia is the only Big East team that could save face for the conference.

That's not true, of course. All Pitt has to do is pound the Mounties into the sand at Heinz Field today, run wild over Cincinnati next week and upset the Big 12 champ in the Fiesta Bowl.