This weekend brings us the 107th version of the Backyard Brawl as Pittsburgh looks to improve on its 2-0 start against West Virginia in college football’s Week 3 action on Saturday.

Pitt lost this game a year ago and slumped to a 3-9 mark, the worst record in head coach Pat Narduzzi’s time with the school, but quarterback Eli Holstein appears to have rejuvenated this offense so far, ranking 12th nationally in passing output and 28th in scoring offense.

West Virginia recovered from its season-opening loss to Penn State by routing Albany the week after and comes into this matchup as the slight favorite, needing to beef up an attack that ranks 74th nationally in scoring and 88th in passing production.

What do the analytics say about the matchup? Let’s turn to the SP+ prediction model to get a preview of how Pittsburgh and West Virginia compare in this Week 3 college football game.

The simulations currently favor the road team in this game, but by a very slim margin.

SP+ predicts that West Virginia will defeat Pittsburgh by a projected score of 30 to 27 and to win the game by an expected 3.1 points overall.

The model gives the Mountaineers a slight 58 percent chance of outright victory.

SP+ is a “tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency” that attempts to predict game outcomes by measuring “the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football.”

How good is it this season? So far, the SP+ model is 47-44 against the spread with a 51.6 win percentage.

West Virginia is a 1.5 point favorite against Pittsburgh, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook, which set the total at 63.5 points for the game.

FanDuel lists the moneyline odds for West Virginia at -126 to win outright and for Pittsburgh at +105.

If you’re using this projection to bet on the game, you should take …

Other analytical models take a different view and favor the Panthers over the Mountaineers.

That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times to pick winners.

Pittsburgh is projected to win the game outright in 52.6 percent of the computer’s updated simulations, while West Virginia comes out the winner in the remaining 47.4 percent of sims.

The index forecasts a very close game, but sides with West Virginia to be 0.7 points better than Pittsburgh on the same field, not enough to cover this spread.

West Virginia will win 5.8 games this season and sits sixth from the bottom among Big 12 teams with a 2.3 percent chance to qualify for the College Football Playoff.

The models project Pittsburgh will win 6.8 games and have a 3.4 percent shot at the 12-team playoff, ranking ninth in the ACC in that category.

When: Sat., Sept. 14
Time: 3:30 p.m. Eastern
TV: ESPN2 network

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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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The West Virginia First Foundation will utilize Ascend WV coworking space in Morgantown, Fayetteville, Elkins, Martinsburg and Lewisburg to carry out its work of distributing nearly $1 billion of settlement funds to support the fight against opioid misuse in the Mountain State.
(WVU Photo)

West Virginia University and Ascend WV — the nation’s premier talent attraction and retention program supported by the WVU Brad and Alys Smith Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative — have joined forces to support the fight against the opioid epidemic in West Virginia.

The University, along with Ascend WV, which was established through a gift from the Wing 2 Wing Foundation and in partnership with West Virginia Department of Tourism, stepped forward upon learning the West Virginia First Foundation needed working space to carry out its charge to help people across the Mountain State. The WVFF is tasked with distributing nearly $1 billion of opioid settlement funds.

“West Virginia University cares about the people of this state and we are a force for good,” WVU President Gordon Gee said. “This is the essence of being West Virginia’s land-grant flagship University.”

Under the agreement, space at Ascend WV locations in Morgantown, Fayetteville, Elkins, Martinsburg and Lewisburg will be available to the West Virginia First Foundation at no cost.

“I want to thank WVU and the Ascend WV program for their generous contribution of office space,” West Virginia First Foundation Executive Director Jonathan Board said. “Having these outreach locations will allow the Foundation to be present within communities in every region of the state as we focus on serving the people who most need help.”

The Foundation plans to use the space in Ascend WV communities for meetings and to better reach into various regions of the state, an approach which dovetails with the mission of Ascend WV, according to Danny Twilley, OEDC assistant vice president of economic, community and asset development.

“This is where we see our role in this endeavor,” Twilley said. “Community engagement has been a cornerstone of our program from the start, whether we’re connecting ‘ascenders’ with resources and opportunities in their new home, helping native West Virginians find their way back or supporting communities in their endeavors to thrive.”

-WVU-

ak/9/12/24

MEDIA CONTACT: April Kaull
Executive Director of Communications
WVU University Relations
304-293-3990; April.Kaull@mail.wvu.edu

Call 1-855-WVU-NEWS for the latest West Virginia University news and information from WVUToday.

GRAFTON, W.Va (WDTV) – As we remember those we’ve lost in the September 11th terrorist attack, it’s also a day to remember the men and women who have died for this country before and after 9/ll. on Wednesday, volunteers at the West Virginia National Cemetery in Grafton went above and beyond to ensure that honor.

“We just keep the headstones clean,” said Richard Colosky, the West Virginia National Cemetery Director. “We make sure we’re getting any type of objectional accumulation, and the big thing to keep them clean as if you don’t stay up on this, they can get algae or liken, and then eventually if they’re not taken care of properly, it ends up all black and you won’t even be able to read the names.”

Colosky explains a headstone-cleaning process. He and other staff joined volunteers today as part of the ‘Carry the Load’ initiative, which works to beautify headstones at 67 national cemeteries across the nation. This preserves the final resting place of those who paid the ultimate price for the United States of America.

“You have to be able to come in and read the veterans’ names, the veterans and the people who come to visit deserve that,” Colosky said. “This is not the only time these gravestones get cleaned, we clean these headstones twice a year. It’s the national standard for national cemeteries to keep these headstones clean. We go through assessments twice a year that grade the quality.”

The cemetery in Grafton has been taking part in ‘Carry the Load’ for a few years now, and this year it had one of its biggest crowds of volunteers. Most of the volunteers, and students, weren’t even alive at the time of the 9/11 attack or during wars for which these veterans fought. Even so, one student, Payden Moon told 5News that he’s all too familiar with the importance of remembering those who we’ve lost.

“A lot of my family members served in the military,” said Moon. “Grandpa, my mom’s stepdad, a real long line of military background. My great-grandpa survived Pearl Harbor. It means a lot to me to come out and show these graves of deceased individuals some respect.”

Moon and his peers cleaned over 1,800 headstones in under three hours.

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