The Backyard Brawl game is not only a rivalry among fans and players. But now it has gotten the two head coaches pretty bitter as well, as the ACC fines Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi for his post-game comments.
Pitt came back in the fourth quarter at home to beat West Virginia 38-34 Saturday. The two teams combined for 19 penalties in the game, with West Virginia being flagged 12 times for 112 yards.
The Comments
In the post-game on-field interview with ESPN, Narduzzi, never one to shy away from expressing his thoughts, gave his take on the fourth quarter of the game. “Some of the calls we got. Late hit out of bounds. They catch a ball with a hands to the face. I ain’t never seen anything like it. We beat West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. And we beat the officials, too.”
The Penalty
Sunday night, the ACC handed down a $5,000 fine for the school, because of Narduzzi’s comments. In a written statement, the conference said, “The Atlantic Coast Conference issued a public reprimand of Pitt’s football coach Pat Narduzzi for violating the ACC Sportsmanship Policy following Pitt’s win over West Virginia on September 14. In addition, the league announced that an institutional fine has been issued to Pitt ($5,000) as a result of the violation.”
Coaches, administrators, and others tied to a school are prohibited from commenting directly on the in-game performance of officiating crews.
Neal Brown Responds
For his part, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown also was not pleased with the officiating but refrained from commenting on any specific calls. Instead, his responses on the subject were aimed at Narduzzi’s comments. Yeah, I think that’s bulls***. I thought the officials, we can say what we want to, but the officials, you know I’m not real pleased with them either,” Brown said in the post-game press conference. “But I don’t know about that. You’ll never hear me blame the officials or anything. I disagree with calls, but it’s a really hard game to officiate.”
He added, “Going back to the question you were asking about Narduzzi. They did a really good job. I’m not pleased with the officials, either. I feel his pain on that. But I don’t necessarily think they beat them. You know, we’re the one that got a long touchdown called back.”
The ACC said the $5,000, when paid, will go to the Weaver-James-Corrigan-Swofford Postgraduate Scholarship account.
