Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi was not happy with some of the ESPN coverage he saw leading up to his team’s big game against West Virginia on Thursday night, and he was quick to let the network know about it after the Panthers came away with a thrilling win.
Pitt beat West Virginia 38-31 in the Backyard Brawl rivalry game between the two schools. The matchup brought 70,622 fans to the newly named Acrisure Stadium, which was a record for a sporting event in Pittsburgh. ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt asked Narduzzi after the game about the atmosphere. Narduzzi immediately began bashing ESPN for predictions that there would be mostly West Virginia fans in attendance.
“It was a great atmosphere out here, I can tell you that. Our Panther nation stood out. I saw some stat that there was gonna be 75 percent West Virginia fans. You guys messed that up on ESPN, for sure,” Narduzzi said. “It was certainly all Panthers today.”
Narduzzi also began his postgame press conference by talking about how “ESPN disrespected our fans.”
Pitt was down 31-24 early in the fourth quarter before coming up with a big fourth-down stop. The Panthers got some help from a costly decision that West Virginia coach Neal Brown made. The Panthers then scored a touchdown and got a game-winning pick-six on the following drive.
Narduzzi clearly could not wait to rub ESPN’s nose in it.
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