After 11 years in hibernation the Backyard Brawl between West Virginia and Pittsburgh returned yesterday and promptly delivered a strong contender for game of the year. But one of the two head coaches had some issues with the officiating apparently.
After shaking hands with Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi, West Virginia’s Neal Brown saw the game officials run by. Brown’s demeanor changed as he started chasing after them, yelling all the while.
Brown may have taken issue with a number of calls throughout the game. A few overturned targeting penalties – one of which caused a concussion to a receiver – along with that controversial call on the game-sealing completion that was later ruled an incompletion might have been the culprits.
The clip has gone viral with well over 100,000 views. Some of the comments are pretty interesting to say the least.
Neal Brown trying to get at the ref after shaking hands pic.twitter.com/6d3Fu9mUOR
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) September 2, 2022
“A guy who was too much of a baby to go for it on 4th and inches going at the refs, who woulda thunk?” one user wrote.
“I watched the whole game. The ref wasn’t the problem,” another said.
“So happy football is back,” Rex Chapman replied.
Neal Brown has plenty of reasons to be upset about that outcome. On top of the pain of losing any game, that loss could wind up being the difference between whether he keeps his job at the end of the year.
Brown is now 17-19 as head coach at West Virginia and has yet to lead the Mountaineers to a winning season.