The Fan’s Adam Crowley — a WVU alumni — and Dorin Dickerson said they didn’t know it was going to happen after the fact, but as the crew was discussing Pitt during Friday morning’s show, they had a special caller.
“Yeah, this is Pat from Pittsburgh, wondering what we’ve got this West Virginia guy doing on our Pittsburgh radio show,” the caller fired off. “We couldn’t find someone better? I mean, his parents were smart enough to go to Pittsburgh, but this guy just couldn’t get it done, huh?”
“Wait a minute… coach Duzz??” Crowley asked incredulously.
Narduzzi introduced himself as ‘Pat from Pittsburgh’ before laying into Crowley, and it is very, very likely that Narduzzi was doing a bit of trolling even from the beginning.
After all, Penn State head coach James Franklin used to call into the Fan himself, introducing himself as ‘James from State College.’
Pitt and West Virginia will, of course, face off in Week 3 of the coming season. It’s the first matchup since Pitt beat WVU 38-31 at Acrisure Stadium last season in front of a record-setting crowd.
The Backyard Brawl will be moving to Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown, W.Va. this coming season, and Narduzzi shared some thoughts on the rivalry continuing.
“I’m really excited about that 7:30 night game, couldn’t be more excited,” Narduzzi said. “I mean, hey, 7:30 night game in Pittsburgh a year ago, and we’ll take another 7:30. It’ll be a great atmosphere down there, wear your hard hats and be ready to go. It’ll be a little different style than the clash in Pittsburgh.
“I don’t think we’ll travel as well down to Morgantown because of the smaller stadium size, and the way they treat fans down there, I think there’s a lot of Pitt fans — obviously they’ve got the money to do it, but I wonder what that will be like. From all the stories I’ve heard, there’s a lot of older Pitt fans that are like, I’m not going down to that place. I’d rather go to the zoo.”
Narduzzi, as you’ll hear in the short radio segment, ribbed Crowley throughout the whole segment, but he admitted that it was in the spirit of the rivalry.
“You gotta have these rivalries,” Narduzzi said. “I’ve enjoyed calling in today. You know I’m just busting you, Adam. I’m sure your sister didn’t bear you that bad.”
And Crowley, who admitted that bleeds blue and gold, found it hard not to admire Narduzzi’s humor and confidence.
“Could you imagine (WVU head coach) Neal Brown doing that?” Crowley asked.
“No,” Dickerson immediately responded.
