The reigniting of the Backyard Brawl is approaching. Pitt against West Virginia at Acrisure Stadium. Thursday night.
That got a pair of 93.7 The Fan personalities thinking. If you were to put together All-21st Century Teams from Pitt and WVU, who wins?
So Joe Starkey (WVU) and Josh Rowntree (Pitt) dove into it. And here are the results.
We welcome fan voting to determine the outcome.
SEE JOSH ROWNTREE'S PITT TEAM HERE.
WEST VIRGINIA
By Joe Starkey
STARKEY’S MISSION STATEMENT: In my defense, I have been commissioned to do a job here: make a case that the All-21st Century West Virginia football team could beat the All-21st Century Pitt team in a single game. This means only guys who have played at some point since the year 2000, so don’t burn my couch because I didn’t include Major Harris or Sam Huff. Though I may have misgivings about the quality of the case, I must defend it. This has nothing to do with rooting interests. It’s not personal. It’s strictly business. And like any good attorney, I shall defend my client to the outer edges of the law.
Ladies and Germs, your 21st Century Mountaineers …
COACH - Rich Rodriguez: I win easily here. RichRod went 32-5 over a three-year stretch with three top-10 finishes, better than any stretch for Pitt in 40-plus years. Thank you.
OFFENSE
QB - Pat White: I win here, too, and rather handily. I love me some Kenny Pickett, but he had one great year. White had two and maybe three. He also had two top-seven Heisman finishes. He was one of the most electrifying college quarterbacks of all-time, is what he was. When he left WVU, he was the NCAA’s all-time leader in QB rush yards. He finished with 10,531 total yards and 103 combined touchdowns. Oh, and he was 4-0 in bowl games, including wins over Georgia and Oklahoma in which the Mountaineers rolled up 86 points. I’m 2-0 in the two most important categories!
RB - Steve Slaton: His amazing 2006 campaign — 1,744 yards, 2,104 scrimmage yards, 7.0 yards per carry, 18 touchdowns — earned him a 4th-place finish (six first-place votes) in the Heisman race and was better than Shady McCoy’s best year. Slaton scored a Big East record 50 touchdowns in his career. He was on his way to a big-time NFL career, too, with 1,282 yards his rookie season (exact same number as Marshall Faulk had his first year) before a neck injury stopped him.
RB - Noel Devine: He holds the school record for all-purpose yardage (5,761). He could score any time he touched the ball. He used to do things like explode for 135 yards on six carries (ask Maryland), and he might have the greatest high school highlights tape of all-time. Is there something else you’d like to know?
TE/FB - Owen Schmitt: All you need to know is that he broke eight — EIGHT! — metal facemasks in his career because he destroyed so many people on blocks. But I will also tell you that his nickname was “The Runaway Beer Truck.” That has to be worth something. He also ran for over 1,000 yards, averaged 6.3 ypc, caught 32 passes and scored 15 TDs. I’m going to utilize Schmitt as half tight end, half fullback. I will eschew the traditional tight end so that I can add a third running back.
WR - Tavon Austin: Real simple. He’s a two-time first-team All-American and one of the most spectacular all-around talents in college football history. Scored touchdowns rushing and receiving and returning punts and kickoffs. Could play inside, outside or anywhere else, including mid-air. Had 344 yards rushing in a single game. Set an Orange Bowl record with four TD catches. Eighth in Heisman race in 2012. Pitt simply has nobody who could corral him.
WR - Stedman Bailey: Had more catches (114) and touchdowns (25) in his junior year than Larry Fitzgerald did in his runner-up Heisman year. Just sayin’.
***Quick aside here: I have left the 7th overall pick of the 2015 draft (Kevin White), a breathtaking talent (the late Chris Henry) and a veritable touchdown catch machine (David Sills V) off my skill-position list. Can you believe this?
C - Dan Mozes: Just one of the most decorated offensive linemen of all-time. That’s all. Two-time Rimington Trophy winner as nation’s best center.
G - Doug Nester: You like 6-7, 320? I do. Nester’s a preseason All-Big 12 pick this year.
G - Mark Glowinski: You like 6-4, 310? I do. Glowinski was good enough to start immediately for the Seattle Seahawks and make millions in the NFL.
OT - Yodny Cajuste: You like 6-5, 311? I do. This guy was an anchor on a 2018 team that averaged 40 points and 512 yards per game. Bill Belichick liked him enough to draft him in the third round.
OT - Selvish Capers: You like 6-5, 310? I do. This guy helped pave the way for White and Slaton and got drafted into NFL. And he was a very un-selvish player (you like that, horse?).
DEFENSE
DE - Bruce Irvin: Finished second in the nation in sacks (14) in 2010. Drafted 15th overall. Only Pitt player drafted higher than that in past 15 years was Aaron Donald.
DE - Will Clarke: Allderdice’s very own, he had 17 tackles for loss and six sacks in 2012, parlaying that into a third-round selection in NFL draft.
DT - Darius Stills: 12 tackles for loss, six sacks in 2019. First-team All-American in 2020. Very close to him and perhaps surpassing him is younger brother Dante Stills, who has 97 tackles, 38.5 tackles for loss, and 17 sacks over the past three years.
DT - Julian Miller: Finished career with 27.5 sacks and 42 tackles for loss. Set school record for sacks (four) in a 21-20 win over Pitt in 2011, I’m sorry to say.
LB - Grant Wiley: I’m gonna go ahead and say Riley’s senior season was better than any season any Pitt linebacker has posted since 2000. Had the big pick in the end zone in the 52-31 win over Pitt. Made 18 tackles against Miami. Consensus First-Team All-American. Led the nation with 7 forced fumbles and ranked third with 7.6 tackles per game. Finished the year with 158 tackles, 14 tackles for a loss, two interceptions and 7 forced fumbles. Not bad.
LB - David Long Jr.: Long was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year in 2018 when he had 19.5 tackles for loss.
LB - James “Dirty” Davis: Don’t sell this man short. He tackled a ton of humans behind the line, recording 39 for loss over his final three years. He wasn’t always a linebacker, but he is on this team. Added eight sacks his senior year. Also, his nickname was “Dirty.”
CB - Adam “Pac Man” Jones: OK, he’s not Darrelle Revis, but he was the first defensive player taken in the 2005 draft (sixth overall), so he must have been pretty good. Come on. He was great. He did Deion Sanders-like stuff at WVU. Like the time he scored on an 87-yard kick return and a 47-yard interception return against Boston College. Insane talent. And he even helped the Steelers win a playoff game.
CB - Rasul Douglas: Easy pick for second corner. Tied for tops in the country with eight picks in 2016 and made First Team All-Big 12, which is why he was a third-round pick. The last time a Pitt corner not named Revis was drafted that high was 18 years ago.
S - Tykee Smith: Sure, he transferred to Georgia, where he enters this season as one of the top safeties in the country, but he did some serious damage at WVU. Pro Football Focus: “In his last full season at West Virginia, Smith earned an 89.7 coverage grade and allowed only 110 yards across 25 catches and 38 targets.” Told ya. Second-team All-American in 2020.
S - Karl Joseph: Don’t let his Steeler stint fool you. This dude was one of the most violent, reckless college hitters I have ever seen. That’s one reason he was drafted 14th overall. The last Pitt safety to go in the first round was … (checks notes) … never.
SPECIAL TEAMS
K - Casey Legg: I was tempted to pick Pat McAfee, but his dreadful performance in “13-9” was a little tough to overlook. So I’ll go with the best-named kicker this side of Chris Blewitt, a man called Casey Legg, who has never missed an extra point and whose 82.6 field-goal percentage last season was 26th in the country. He will be kicking in Heinz Field on Thursday.
P - Pat McAfee: I’ll let McAfee punt.
RETURN MAN - Spin a wheel. You can’t go wrong. Austin? Pac Man? Devine? This is incredible!
MORAL OF THE STORY: WVU wins this game, 51-48, because of a ridiculously explosive offense that, unlike Pitt, features players who embarrassed some of the proudest programs in the country in bowl games (Oklahoma, Georgia, Clemson, etc.). The narrative will be that Pitt has the higher-end talent, and in terms of Pro Football Hall of Famers, that’s true. But we’re talkin’ college careers — and lookie here: Since 2000, WVU has five top-15 NFL draft picks and three in the top 10. Pitt has three in the top 15 and one in the top 10. Interesting. I’m very confident that for one game, and one game only, RichRod will redeem himself.