While Pat McAfee celebrated being back home in Pittsburgh with College GameDay visiting the Pitt Panthers hosting the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, there was still the fact of the matter that he actually attended school at Pitt’s arch rival from the Backyard Brawl, the West Virginia Mountaineers.
McAfee opened College GameDay paying homage to his hometown and talking about their great history in sports, which led to more Pittsburgh Pirates talk than ESPN has ever seen in November.
And as he likes to do, his show-opening monologue also featured a call and response with the crowd with some of the favorite chants of the home fans. But when he tried to sneak in a quick “Country Roads,” in honor of his alma mater, the Pitt fans on hand had a very quick response.
They hit McAfee with a “13-9” chant, which the College GameDay star immediately tried to shut down in good fun.
Pat McAfee gets trolled with a “13-9” chant from Pitt fans after he tried to sneak in a singing of Country Roads. McAfee missed 2 FGs for second ranked West Virginia in the 2007 Backyard Brawl. pic.twitter.com/Q41VCZvn6E
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 15, 2025
For the uninitiated, you may not be aware of the significance of the “13-9” chant. Let’s go in the wayback machine to the 2007 Backyard Brawl…
The 2007 season was one of the wildest in college football history as multiple programs had their fate in their own hands when it came to a berth in the BCS National Championship Game. One of those teams was the West Virginia Mountaineers led by Pat White and Steve Slaton. Coming into their final game of the season, they were ranked #2 in the country hosting Pitt in their rivalry game. A victory would have likely put them in the national title game.
Unfortunately, kicker Pat McAfee missed two chip shot field goals in the first quarter, including one from just 20 yards and another from 32 yards. And those misses proved very costly as Pitt pulled off the upset 13-9 over West Virginia. The Mountaineers haven’t come close to competing for a national championship since.
So now you know the rest of the story. And why Pat McAfee made his career in the NFL being a punter and not a placekicker.
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