With 6:10 to go in the first national game of the first week of the 2022 college football season, Neal Brown faced the biggest decision to date.
His Mountaineers of West Virginia led the Backyard Brawl 31-24 and faced a 4th-and-1 from the Pitt 48-yard line.
West Virginia's running game was chewing through grass like a Toro mower at that point in the game; including the previous two WVU drives (which both ended in touchdowns) and the ongoing drive, West Virginia's had run the ball 11 times for 104 yards. Odds were good they could pick up a yard in that situation, but not good enough for WVU head coach Neal Brown. Brown left his offense on the field to take a delay of game, then punted.
Pitt, which had punted on its two previous possessions, went 92 yards in seven plays to tie the game. The Mountaineer defense appeared to have Pitt QB Kedon Slovis rattled on the prior drive, sacking him twice in three plays, but Slovis rallied, going 4-of-4 for 67 yards and the game-tying touchdown.
That was part of Brown's decision calculus, and West Virginia took over with 3:34 left. The next major event was not. A simple pitch-and-catch from WVU QB JT Daniels to wide receiver Bryce Ford-Wheaton bounced off the intended's hands and into the hands of Pitt defensive back MJ Devonshire, who raced it 56 yards for a pick-six.
Final score: Pitt 38, West Virginia 31.
After the game, Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi took the lit end of his victory cigar and put it right in Brown's chest.
Pat Narduzzi asked about WVU electing to punt on the fourth and 1: “I’d have gone for it.” pic.twitter.com/l7I13II8Yb
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) September 2, 2022
For his part, Brown defended the decision.
"If you look at what they've done traditionally, they've been really, really good at short-yardage situations," he said. "When you go back and look at it, it was probably three quarters of a yard probably. So, if you take the whole scope of the game, you look at the drive before that, we got two sacks [and] we put them in third and forever. And we played really well defensively on back-to-back drives. So I felt good about it. It's easy to second guess now because they went 98 yards. I think the situation was sound and, if I had to do it again, I'd do it again."
Those who know Narduzzi's history are understandably skeptical of his hypothetical claim, given his history.
In 2019, Narduzzi was faced with his own 4th-and-1 situation. With 4:54 to play, Pitt faced a 4th-and-1 at Penn State's 1-yard line. The Panthers trailed 17-10 at the time. Narduzzi opted for a field goal, which hooked wide left from 19 yards out. Pitt lost the game by the same 17-10 score.
Perhaps Narduzzi is signaling to us he's learned from that experience. Or maybe he just wants to make a painful loss a little more uncomfortable for an old rival.