West Virginia head coach Neil Brown makes this call as the new practice period begins. (Photo by Kevin Kinder, BlueGoldNews.com)
MORGANTOWN — Almost every time West Virginia plays Cincinnati on its football schedule, the idea that this should be a rivalry comes up almost every time.
And it was this week that Mountaineers coach Neil Brown, who has more on his mind than just whether a rivalry with Cincinnati is important, was asked the inevitable question.
His answer was just three simple sentences, but it got to the heart of the matter with the precision of a renowned heart surgeon.
“You can’t manufacture it. You have to be successful on the field.” he said “But I think this is a game that should be played every year.”
Amen to all.
What causes rivalry?
History is the simple answer.
That’s not to say geography isn’t important, but it has to be built on the field first through intense competition, close games, and memorable moments.
It doesn’t exist here and now.
Oh, and its history goes back to the Roaring Twenties. 1921 – 103 years ago – before Old Mountaineer Field was built, WVU hosted Cincinnati and won 50-0.
The one-sided aspect of the first match affected the entire rivalry. WVU has a 17-3, 3-1 advantage in head-to-head wins. This is seen in reverse with Penn State, which many consider to be a rivalry, but only in the minds of one side, namely WVAU.
In addition to winning games, you have to earn respect, and WVU never really did that in the Penn State series.
And here it is. There was a long gap between matches. They were often in different leagues. Although the two schools were only a three-and-a-half hour drive apart, it felt like they existed on different planets.
It didn’t make sense now, but over time, a certain magnetism developed that drew the two schools together.
In basketball, Gail Catlett played at West Virginia University, coached at Cincinnati, and then returned to WVU where she had her best season. Bob Huggins followed the same path in his Hall of Fame season.
WVU has been actively scouting Cincinnati for years, with the Queen City sending players like Deuce McBride to its basketball program and John Thornton and David Long Jr. to its football program.
And this interaction between the athletes is likely to grow even more in the coming years, as the two are now competitors in the Big 12, the eastern outpost of the national league.
If they made an effort to have them play each other in the Big 12 every year, like they do between Kansas and Kansas State, it would increase familiarity and create emotion between both fan bases.
The Bearcats will rely heavily on Jared Bartlett’s pass rush in this year’s comeback game, which will be played Saturday at noon and will be broadcast on FS1. He had 14.5 sacks over the first four years of his college career, all while playing in college. This season, he has added even more strength to his game, owning 5.5 sacks, 8 TFL, and 42 total tackles.
In the portal era, we expect to see more and more traffic of players moving in both directions across Kentucky from Cincinnati to Morgantown and vice versa.
The visit to Cincinnati will be WVU’s first since 2011, and playing at Nippert Stadium will be a huge surprise, unless, of course, this turns out to be a bittersweet effort for the Mountaineers. It will only help with player acquisition efforts in the region.
The Mountaineers have won eight of their previous nine trips to Cincinnati.
Certainly, conflicts can arise between these two areas.
Technically, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals are considered rivals because they play in the same NFL division, and during the glory days of both teams, the Pirates and Reds despised each other in the 1970s. It matched. Pittsburgh will feature Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Dave Parker and Doc Ellis, while Cincinnati will feature Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan.
It’s important to establish this rivalry now as Cincinnati seeks respect for football in the Big 12 and WVU looks to finish the season strong for the second year in a row to regain respect for football. It is.
The Bearcats unearthed a lot of talent from the portal last year, adding in addition to Bartlett, quarterback Brendan Thorsby from Indiana and tight end Joe Royer from Ohio State, both second-year coaches. A certain Scott Satterfield was acquired while trying to establish himself. Their role in Big 12 football.
Perhaps nothing is more indicative of the fact that the rivalry is ripe for blossoming than WVU’s travel arrangements for this game.
This is different. There are no flights. They collected buses and headed to Cincinnati, stopping off in Columbus, Ohio, home of Ohio State University, to practice breaking up the trip.
“If you think about it, to get on the plane, you have to take the bus to Clarksburg, get on the plane, and then drive to the hotel.” Brown said, without using too many words, that the trip would probably be the same length and require less effort. “In Troy, we did a lot of things, rightly, wrongly, indifferently, so you can save money and take a little break from your trip.
“We’ll be stopping in the Columbus area for about two and a half hours to practice and eat lunch before finishing our trip. We’ll be flying back for the early games.”
