Pat Narduzzi calls for Pitt-West Virginia to become annual tradition, avoids Penn State question at ACC Media Days

Pat Narduzzi made some waves earlier in May when he called for Pitt and West Virginia to play every season moving forward. That’s not the only team the Panthers coach wants on his schedule year-in and year-out though, as he wants Penn State too.

Narduzzi made it a point to mention each program’s non-conference schedule in the coming years, hoping something comes to fruition between the schools: “This rivalry goes probably right at the top or near the top of rivalry games I’ve played in,” Narduzzi said of the Backyard Brawl, via 92.7 The Fan. “If the people of Pittsburgh have never been to a Backyard Brawl, it is one of the best, if not the best, in the country, in my opinion.

“There’s a lot of hate in this rivalry. I’ve been around a lot of rivalries, but the hate that West Virginia has for Pitt, the disrespect, to me, that makes a rivalry. Sometimes, it’s not clean. I know there’s a lot of Pitt fans that don’t want to travel down to Morgantown because of that. But it’s right up there at the top. I was in the Michigan/Michigan State rivalry for eight years prior to coming here.

“That Penn State/Pitt one – which we’re still trying to figure out why we don’t play that game still. We should be playing West Virginia and Penn State every single year. I’ll go on record as saying I’m ready to go right now. Let’s line it up, especially these two extra years we have here where we’re not playing anybody. It’s a big-time rivalry, for sure.”

Due to the nature of his comments, Narduzzi’s opinion caught some steam. Naturally, he was asked about it at ACC Media Days, but he surprisingly skirted the idea of playing Penn State, focusing more on West Virginia instead.

“We’ll stick with West Virginia today, because they’re on our schedule and we get to play them in Game 3 on Sept. 13,” Narduzzi responded. “With the way that the college landscape is going, the conferences are kind of exploded. We’ve got teams from the West Coast that are in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I think those regional rivalry games are critical. Our players look forward to play West Virginia every year. That’s a rivalry game that will end after this year. I think maybe in three years it picks back up. So, we do have a four game stretch.

“If you guys have any power to maybe see if we can get them in the next three years, we’re willing to make some movements in our schedule and try to get that done. I would love to play them every year. You know, to have at least one rivalry game, which is West Virginia right now, we’d love to them on. Again, that’s what the game is all about, those regional rivalries. Fans love it. Our players love it. It’s intense. There’s no love lost that that’s what it’s all about. That’s college football.”

Alas, Narduzzi has a 2-1 record against West Virginia since the rivalry made its triumphant return in 2022. Pitt and Penn State, however, have not played since 2019 – a 17-10 Nittany Lions victory.

Moving forward, Pat Narduzzi is hoping to see both West Virginia and Penn State on Pittsburgh’s schedule in the future. Whether or not that comes to fruition or not remains to be seen, but it’s certainly something many Panthers fans would sign up for.

— On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this article.