WVU ready for their first test at Backyard Brawl

MORGANTOWN, W.Va (WDTV) - The Backyard Brawl returns after an 11 year hiatus.

The 105th meeting between the Pitt Panthers and West Virginia Mountaineers means it’s an exciting week to live in the state of country roads.

Both teams have a mutual respect for what the other has done and the emotion that fuels the brawl.

For some Mountaineers, those in their fifth or sixth years, the brawl was a game on a schedule they didn’t think they’d have a chance to play in suiting up as a freshman with the gold-and-blue.

As for anyone, life happens and plans change. Now, it’s given them the opportunity to bring the brawl back, remembering the significance, but keeping those emotions under control has been a focal point for the veterans on the team like Dante Stills.

“I can’t put it into words because inside of me, I really want to be like ‘I’m so excited as a kid but I can’t do that,’” Stills said. “I am excited. This is a game that I always wanted to play in. Inside I’m very up, but I’m also at a level where I can control it and not be too overwhelmed or excited to play. I’m just worried about going out there and doing my job, playing as hard as I can from the first play to the end.”

“2018, my freshman year, I might have known about i,t but it was five years away at that time. When you’re a young kid, you think you’ll come into college and just be here for three years, so I didn’t really know in my head at the time that I was really gonna get the chance to play them. Now its my fifth year, and it just happens to be game one, so it’s really a cool experience. I’m glad I get to be a part of it,” Bryce Ford-Wheaton said.

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