Luke Combs calls Backyard Brawl between West Virginia, Pittsburgh the most underrated rivalry

College Football is all about rivalries.

Some of the greatest in the sport include “The Game” between Michigan and Ohio State, the “Iron Bowl” between Auburn and Alabama and the “Red River Rivalry” between Oklahoma and Texas. Nine-time CMA Award winner Luke Combs however gave a different answer when asked about his most underrated rivalry while making an appearance at the Barstool Office.

“To me it’s the Backyard Brawl,” Combs said. “West Virginia and Pitt. I know that people that are in the West Virginia/Pitt rivalry are gonna be like ‘how is that underrated?’ I think as an entirety in the country, super underrated rivalry. You’ve got to check it out.”

Luke Combs and the Barstool Office choose the most underrated rivalries in College Football pic.twitter.com/X9FYZHWLiZ

— Barstool Gambling (@stoolgambling) July 28, 2025

Other answers given were the Kansas/Missouri rivalry (Barstool’s Brandon Walker), the USF/UConn rivalry (Barstool’s Steven Cheah) and the Ole Miss/LSU rivalry (Barstool’s Ben Mintz).

The “Backyard Brawl” between West Virginia and Pittsburgh dates back to 1895, where the Mountaineers won the first ever meeting between the teams 8-0. In 107 total matchups, Pittsburgh leads the all-time series 63-41-3. The Panthers won last season’s meeting 38-34 thanks to a go-ahead rushing touchdown from Derrick Davis Jr. with just 32 seconds remaining.

“If you don’t know anything about rivalries… this is the one,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said prior to last season’s meeting. “There’s not many more important rivalry games in the country. This is the one people in Pittsburgh and down south live for… It doesn’t matter if we’re 2-0 or 0-2, It’s going to be a dog fight between these two teams.”

Rich Rodriguez returns to the “Backyard Brawl” this season

The rivalry will see a renewed energy added to it this season, as head coach Rich Rodriguez (who was at West Virginia from 2001-2007) returns to Morgantown this season. With Rich-Rod at the helm, the Mountaineers went 4-3 against the Panthers in seven games. His final matchup in the rivalry occurred in the 2007 Backyard Brawl, which has gone down as one of the best games in the rivalries’ history.

West Virginia looked poised to be heading to the BCS National Championship game as the No. 2 ranked team in the country, but 4-7 Pitt downed the Mountaineers 13-9 in what ESPNU tabbed as the “Game of the Year.”

The two teams will clash this season on Sept. 3 in Morgantown, marking a big stage for Rodriguez’s return to the rivalry. As previously stated, Rodriguez went 4-3 in seven games against rival Pitt. Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi, who has been its head coach since 2015, is 2-1 in three games (games were paused from 2012-2021).