- [Narrator] It's December 1st, 2007.
We're at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, West Virginia.
The number two ranked West Virginia Mountaineers
are just one game away
from their first BCS championship appearance
in school history.
But, their legendary offense has imploded
at the most painful moment possible,
against hated rival Pitt.
Everything this 28 1/2 point underdog Panther's team
needs to pull a miracle upset has happened so far,
but there's no room for error
against one of the most explosive teams in college football
even when you're punting with six seconds left.
How did West Virginia get so close to making history
and how did Pitt get this close to breaking it?
We need to rewind.
(light music)
Right now reality is setting in for West Virginia.
If they're lucky, their normally amazing offense
might get one more play to prevent this massive upset,
but there should be a lot more points
on the board right now.
The 10-1 Mountaineers have averaged 44.5 points a game
in their 10 wins this 2007 season.
Heck, just a week ago, they won the Big East by dropping 66
on a top 20 team and 4-7 Pitt is far from that.
West Virginia scores all those points
because of a very effective zone read rushing attack.
And WVU doesn't just run the zone read, they invented it.
Well, this guy did.
Back in 1991, West Virginia native, Rich Rodriguez,
discovered the reed concept
while coaching at tiny Glenville State College.
During a practice, the Glenville quarterback bobbled a snap
and as he regained control of the ball
had enough time to see where the defensive end was moving.
So, he just ran to where the end wasn't.
And that's pretty much the offense.
The offensive line runs a zone blocking scheme
and the quarterback reads one player
before deciding which way to run.
Years later, Rodriguez added options to pitch
to the running back or throw the ball.
And when you stack enough really talented
really fast players
around a really talented and really fast quarterback,
you become the 2007 Mountaineers.
This team features a rotation
of stars in the backfield.
Quarterback Pat White, running back Steve Slaton,
and Noel Devine, and Owen Schmitt,
maybe the most full back assed full back
in the history of college football.
Rodriguez's zone read broke through nationally
in 1998 when he was offensive coordinator
at Tulane and helped the Green Wave go undefeated.
Then he came home to West Virginia as head coach in 2000.
The move made WVU a national powerhouse
in a sport where upstarts are hard to come by.
In the nine years since the BCS sought to create
an undisputed champion of the sport,
only one team without a previous national title appearance,
Virginia Tech, has appeared in the BCS championship game.
Entering tonight WVU is 32-4 in their last three seasons
and in legit national title contingent
for the first time in the BCS era.
Their explosive offense drew attention from powerful places
as Rodriguez interviewed with Alabama
for their open head coaching job last year.
But the prospect of staying
in Morgantown to chase a BCS title
with the sport's most exciting backfield was too much
and Rich Rod turned down rebuilding The Tide.
And if that sentence sounds weird, buckle up,
because in the year 2007,
nothing was normal in college football.
One of the problems for the Neers right now
might be that number two ranking next
to their name because it might actually be cursed.
In the last 56 days,
nine different teams ranked number one or number two
in the AP Poll have lost,
including six number two ranked teams.
It's been an especially turbulent season and Missouri
and West Virginia, the two teams ranked number one
and number two entering the last week
of the regular season are both losing right now.
One of those former number twos is South Florida.
The only team who's been able
to stop WVU's offense this season.
The Bulls pulled an upset in September by selling out
on defense to stop West Virginia's run game
and they lucked out when White missed the second half
of the game with a leg injury.
A single loss in the BCS era usually kills a team
like West Virginia's chances at a national title appearance
because WVU is in the Big East
and already has a weaker schedule compared
to bigger schools competing for one
of only two spots in the title game.
But there's been a lot
of upsets this season and no one program is truly dominant.
Now, outside of the national title race
the Neers offense was able to quietly thrive
while the rest of college football went stark raving mad.
And by the end of November,
West Virginia had ascended all the way to number two.
Now, all they had to do was win one more game at home
which happened to be against a crappy four win team.
A crappy four win team who's also their most hated rival,
meaning that logic goes out the window in games like these.
This is the 100th meeting between Pitt and West Virginia.
The two campuses are only 70 miles apart
with both programs recruiting the same families
in a region of coal miners and steel mill workers
which is why the game became affectionately known
as the Backyard Brawl.
This rivalry is intense,
but it rarely impacts the national title picture.
In 1955, an undefeated WVU was knocked outta
the Sugar Bowl when Pitt pulled an upset.
In 1982, then number one Pitt held off a WVU upset, 16-13
when the Neers missed a field goal to end the game.
But for 90-ish other games,
the Backyard Brawl has been exactly that.
Local politics, fragile regional identities,
and hatred between Pittsburgh,
the city folk, and the hillbilly mountaineers.
And this brawl wasn't supposed to be
a particularly good or close game
because this year's Pitt team is an unremarkable 4-7
under third year head coach Dave Wannstedt.
After a lengthy NFL coaching run, Wannstedt came back
to his alma mater in 2004.
During his rebuild, Pitt's been blown out twice
by the Mountaineers,
but while the wins haven't piled up yet,
Wannstedt has come through on his biggest hiring day promise
to recruit and sign Pennsylvania's best players.
Most notably running back,
LeSean Shady McCoy from Harrisburg.
While there's young talent at a few positions,
this was still a program finding its footing.
Pitt shouldn't have been capable of competing
with WVU head on.
So, Pitt defensive coordinator Paul Rhoads created
a high-risk game plan going all in
on stopping West Virginia's zone read running
by putting Pitt in a cover zero.
In a cover zero both safeties abandon
the deep part of the field
and move into the box to stop the run
while corners cover receivers one-on-one
with no help at all, hence the name.
With two extra defenders Rhoads spent
all week preaching tackling fundamentals
to accompany the schematic gamble.
Players like Scott McKillop,
the team's leading tackler,
had to execute with perfect form,
but by jamming West Virginia's zones
with extra defenders focused
on preventing yards after contact,
Rhoads thought Pitt
could prevent West Virginia's big play tendencies.
But that's not entirely true
because of Cover Zero's obvious risk,
with both safeties committed to the run,
anything over the top in the passing game
has a pretty damn good chance
of not just completing, but scoring.
And yes, West Virginia was run heavy,
but they still had a great receiver in Darius Reynaud.
If the Mountaineers ran into too much traffic,
surely they'd throw deep to push the safeties back.
It's a very simple adage.
Take what the defense gives you.
So, Pitt's best shot, selling out their pass defense
to try and stop a dynamic run game
was at best half a plan.
Which let's be honest, is no plan at all.
They needed a perfect storm
and some seriously stubborn West Virginia play calling.
Luckily for Pitt,
there were Mountaineer problems right away.
Kicker Pat McAfee missed two field goals
on the nearest first three drives of the game.
Other than a 56-yard attempt last week,
he hadn't missed a kick in two months.
The Cover Zero plan didn't seem to be working.
West Virginia was running with relative ease
and in chunks, they just couldn't score,
and Pitt wasn't a good team.
Freshman quarterback Pat Bostick's interception
at the West Virginia 26 yard line killed
the Panther's best chance on offense.
Then White went down, dislocating the thumb
in his non-throwing hand during a scoring drive.
With just a seven-point deficit,
Pitt found themselves in the same scenario as South Florida,
provided they could slow down the West Virginia run.
And with White outta the game
and Pitt struggling to do much of anything on offense,
West Virginia had even less incentive
to throw the ball with backup, Jarrett Brown.
The Panthers scored a field goal to end the first half
and mounted a long touchdown drive to open the second,
creating a 10-7 lead in the third.
West Virginia wouldn't or couldn't start throwing
and Brown wasn't nearly the same kind of runner as White,
meaning the WVU offense got a whole lot easier
to read and stop,
especially for a defense committed completely to the run.
And when run heavy teams like this don't score,
they still eat a lot of clock.
Recognizing this, Pitt ran McCoy and Bostick as much
as possible to shorten the game even more.
Still, the offense couldn't build a two-possession lead
even with everything going their way.
A Brown fumble deep in West Virginia territory
gave Pitt a first and goal,
but they settled for a field goal
and just a six point lead
with just over six minutes left in the game.
That meant a single play from an explosive West Virginia
could retake the lead.
And Devine almost did exactly that,
breaking those Pitt tackles
to set up a returning White deep in Pitt territory.
- [Commentator] Noel goes straight down to the 33 yard line!
- [Narrator] But with their quarterback back,
West Virginia still went four and out on four run calls.
White, Slaton, White, Slaton yielding nine yards.
That high risk plan of Rhoads worked perfectly
with McKillop wrapping up Slaton on a fourth
and three rush.
Each time, Pitt was ready for the obvious run call.
Maybe White was just cold coming back injured,
but West Virginia never tried to take advantage
of Pitt's defense cheating up on the run.
Maybe Rodriguez didn't try to be different
in his play calling
because these Mountaineers never had to be.
After trading more scoreless possessions
the Feckless Panther offense milked the clock
for all it's worth.
Now they're facing a punting situation
on their own 15 yard line.
Almost none of what's happened tonight
can be logically credited to Pitt
and the Panthers seem to know it.
From injury luck, to turnovers,
to Rodriguez' fiercely stubborn play calling philosophy,
Pitt hasn't so much pulled an upset
as they haven't interrupted
the Mountaineers punching themselves in the face.
It's like that old Sun Tzu proverb:
"Never interrupt an opponent
when he won't throw against an eight man box."
But everything is on the line here,
not just for this season, but a program's entire existence.
This was supposed to be a simple step
on the way to the biggest season in West Virginia history.
A crowning moment for a native son, an evolution of offense,
and a coming out party for this chorus line of play makers.
Even now with seconds left, any single play from any
of West Virginia's wildly talented players
could change the game at any moment
which is what everyone in this stadium has been waiting
for all night long and Pitt knows that.
They're just guests in West Virginia's nightmare.
So, why risk offering your hated rival
with superior talent one last chance to fix their mistakes?
Welcome to a moment in history.
- [Commentator] Running back toward the end zone is no time.
The game is over.
He ran the clock out.
- [Narrator] Okay, thanks for watching.
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(light music)