Backyard Brawl: Pitt Football Preview 9/13/25 At West Virginia

S.Samek

The Pitt Panthers travel to West Virgina this week for the 108th Backyard Brawl. Let’s preview the action.

Pitt won 45-17 over Central Michigan last week to improve to 2-0. Eli Holstein went 21 of 28 passing for 304 yards, four touchdowns and an interception. Ja’Kyrian Turner and Juelz Goff each rushed for a touchdown. Desmond Reid rushed for 46 yards on 10 carries and caught five passes for 69 yards. Raphael Williams Jr. caught five passes for 81 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense was also good limiting Central Michigan to just 218 total yards and 40 rushing yards.

Pitt had four players named to the PFF ACC team of the week for their performance in this game. Lydon Cooper, Isaiah Neal, Nick James and Raylan Lovelace all received spots this week. The Panthers also received some votes in both the AP and coach’s polls but were unable to make it into the top 25 this week.

West Virginia fell to Ohio on the road last week 17-10 to drop to 1-1. Nico Marchiol went 15 of 26 passing for 178 yards and no touchdowns. He was also sacked three times and threw an interception. Jahiem White rushed for 40 yards and a touchdown on six carries.

Pitt leads the all-time series 63-41-3 with a 38-34 victory in the 2024 edition of the game. The last meeting at West Virginia went to the Moutaineers by a 17-6 score back in 2023. However, Pitt does have 20-18-3 record as the visitors in Backyard Brawl games.

I think it will be a challenge for West Virgina to stop Pitt’s highly rated offense. They have scored 13 touchdowns in two games and average 53 points per game, which is second best in both those categories in the ACC.

Pitt’s defense is equally as formidable with a second in the ACC rated total defense and the best rush defense in the conference. Though as mentioned in the West Virgina season preview the rushing offense was a position of strength lead by White and should give that highly rated defense their first real test of the season.

I think it’s going to be a good one. However, I think Pitt wins a close one, 35-28. Be sure to tune in as you won’t want to miss this big-time rivalry. Kickoff is at 3:30 PM.