Column | What does “13-9” really mean?

This Saturday marks the 107th edition of the Backyard Brawl. If bystanders do not know what this game means, they will find out. 

Time stops when these two teams play one another. Few teams have played more times than Pitt and West Virginia, and if Big East football didn’t disband in 2011, there would be even fewer. 

In 2007, on the 100th anniversary of one of the oldest rivalries in college football, Pitt fans received the gift that keeps giving — 13-9.

The score evokes emotions Pitt fans forgot they had. West Virginia fans know that 13-9 ruined their last chance at a national title.

Before Dec. 1, 2007, West Virginia was ranked No. 2 with a 10-1 record, undefeated at home, and entered its final game of the season as a 28.5-point favorite over the Panthers. 

Then-junior quarterback Pat White, who finished sixth in Heisman voting in 2007, anchored a West Virginia offense built around head coach Rich Rodriguez’s zone-read option scheme. Then-junior running back Steve Slaton was also finishing his third straight 1,000-yard rushing season.

The Mountaineers, who averaged 39.6 points per game, were one of the best offenses in the country with unreal speed at most skill positions.

Before kickoff in Morgantown, the Panthers’ record sat at 4-7 and were winless away from Heinz Field. Then-first-year quarterback Pat Bostick was at the helm for most of the season despite the Panthers planning to redshirt him. 

Bostick was the first true first-year quarterback under center for Pitt since 1987 and finished the season with 1,500 passing yards, eight passing touchdowns and 13 interceptions. The Panthers also fielded then-first-year running back LeSean “Shady” McCoy, who averaged 110.67 yards per game, the most for a first-year running back in the country.

Pitt was out of bowl game contention and West Virginia was playing for a trip to the National Title. For the Panthers, the 100th battle against their most hated rival was about playing spoiler. 

On that fateful night, over 60,000 West Virginia faithful packed into Milan Puskar Stadium, expecting a Mountaineers coronation, but were met with one of the most shocking results in college football history.

The Panthers went with the classic “keep them off the field” approach. Offensively, the Panthers ran McCoy and Bostick as much as possible to eat up the clock. McCoy finished the night with 148 rushing yards, and Bostick added a rushing touchdown. While the offensive strategy didn’t rack up a lot of points, it did what it had to do. 

Pitt’s defense had the harder task. The Panthers had to contend with an explosive Mountaineer backfield, so head coach Dave Wannstedt and defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads decided the defense would sell out to stop the run, primarily by running a “Cover 0” defensive coverage for the majority of the game. 

Fortunately for Pitt, questionable play calling by Rodriguez meant that the normally explosive West Virginia offense was quiet all night, and the Mountaineers were held to seven points at halftime. The Panthers were aided in their efforts by several WVU miscues, including two misses in chipshot field goals by kicker Pat McAfee — yes, that one. 

Bostick’s late interception in the second quarter allowed the Mountaineers to score their lone touchdown but with a heavy price. 

White went down with a dislocated thumb, causing him to miss most of the second half. The Panthers finally pieced together a good drive, which ended with a field goal, creating a halftime score of 7-3. 

The Panthers recovered a Mountaineer fumble on the opening kickoff and would parlay their fortune into a one-yard Bostick rushing touchdown. The already sluggish WVU offense was practically nonexistent with backup quarterback Jarrett Brown. A Brown fumble deep in West Virginia territory led to a Panther field goal, extending the Pitt lead to 13-7. 

The Mountaineers’ last-ditch efforts with White back in the game fell short, despite a Noel Devine kick return setting the offense up in Pitt territory. The Panthers’ defense clamped down on West Virginia’s obvious run calls, vindicating Rhoads’ defensive plan. 

Pitt’s punter Dave Brytus finished out the 100th battle between the two teams by running out of the back of the end zone, causing an intentional safety to let the clock run down. Brytus taking a safety etched the infamous final score of 13-9 into stone and left 60,000 attendees and possibly the entire state of West Virginia deathly silent. 

In a 2007 season that was marked with upsets, including six other upsets of No. 2 ranked teams losing to inferior opponents, this one was the most consequential. 

The Mountaineers have not regained their elite status as they did during 2007 and haven’t sniffed legitimate title contention since. West Virginia had spent the 2000s building something beautiful, and Pitt came in and destroyed it, leaving the Mountaineers picking up the pieces since then. 

Two weeks following the loss, WVU head coach Rodriguez left for the job at Michigan, shocking West Virginia fans and college football as a whole.  If the Mountaineers played for the national title, Rodriguez likely would never have left, leaving Michigan to look elsewhere for their vacancy. 

With the Mountaineer loss, and then-No. 1 Missouri losing, the national championship saw Ohio State against LSU, which the Tigers won. Had the Tigers not played for the title, the Les Miles era could have looked a lot different.

In Pittsburgh, the upset remains an iconic moment in program history. “13-9”’ remains a common utterance amongst the Pitt community. Partly because of the unique score, partly of what happened and who it happened to, 13-9 has remained in the memories of Pitt fans — and West Virginia fans too, even if they would like to forget it.