NIL
Garbage Remarks A Big Part of Backyard Brawl Lore
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Did he really say that?
Pitt’s talented sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein, from Zachary, Louisiana, was asked about making his first-ever visit to sold-out Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown this Saturday.
According to Nathan Breisinger of Pittsburgh Sports Now, the sister site to WV Sports Now, Holstein made the following statement in advance of Saturday’s 108th Backyard Brawl.
“There’s going to be little kids flipping me off; I’m going to get batteries and beer thrown at me on the sidelines, all types of stuff like that.”
Really?
Holstein added, “I think our team’s got that mindset to feed off that energy, to feed off the hate and the pure venom and poison from there.”
Since Holstein has never experienced playing a college football game in Morgantown, you wonder who is feeding him this stuff?
His provocative comments are reminiscent of those once made by Panther end John Kuprok way, way back in 1961, although Kuprok’s were spoken innocently in a private setting.
As the story goes, Kuprok, from Duquesne, Pennsylvania, was sitting on the team bus after the Panthers’ 10-7 victory at Miami discussing some of the other college football scores he had heard on the radio while the team was traveling to the airport for the return flight to Pittsburgh.
When one of the players mentioned West Virginia’s 35-26 loss to Richmond, and another remarked that the Mountaineers were rebuilding, Kuprok remarked, “Sure, they’re rebuilding with garbage.”
Unbeknownst to Kuprok, sitting within earshot of him was Jim O’Brien, the editor of Pitt’s student newspaper. A couple days later, O’Brien decided to dust off Kuprok’s juicy quote and use it as filler in his weekly “It Goes On …” column.
In those days, student newspaper coverage was considered more of a nuisance than a necessity, and probably viewed somewhat similar to the “troll squads” that we see on social media today.
Never, in a million years, did Kuprok think his remarks about West Virginia rebuilding with garbage players would ever see the light of day.
But it did, thanks to O’Brien, and West Virginia sports information director Eddie Barrett happened to catch wind of Kuprok’s comments while he was advancing the game at Frankie Gustine’s restaurant in Oakland.
Once Barrett was finished with his speech, he walked over to the Cathedral of Learning where The Pitt News was located, asked someone at the front desk if they could spare a half-dozen copies of the Wednesday, Sept. 20, edition because his kid brother was in it (a lie, of course), and he flipped immediately to the sports page.
His eyes soon grew as big as saucers after he got past O’Brien pointing out Miami quarterback George Mira’s Mexican heritage to read Kuprok’s quote.
Did he really say that?
Barrett put the newspapers in his attaché case, keeping them concealed for the remainder of the week and not mentioning Kuprok’s comments to anyone.
Kuprok’s “garbage” statement was destined to become a little innocent Shadyside shade only to be enjoyed by a small cadre of Pitt faithful.
That is until Barrett’s discovery.
“I was so excited that I couldn’t sleep,” the late Barrett once recalled many years later. “But I didn’t want to let it out too early because it could have boomeranged.”
Finally, following Friday’s walk-through practice in Pittsburgh, the WVU sports information director pulled out the newspapers and showed them to coach Gene Corum.
Standing next to Corum was assistant coach Russ Crane, once an All-American guard at Illinois and a gruff, rough-and-tumble customer. A smile forming on Corum’s face, he handed the paper to Crane.
“Whoa, ammo!” was Crane’s response.
Corum and Crane had Kuprok’s “garbage” remarks plastered throughout the locker room for all of West Virginia’s players to read, including those from Western Pennsylvania.
And there were some pretty good ones in the locker room that afternoon, including Portage’s Steve Berzansky, Charleroi’s Pete Goimarac and Keith Melenyzer, Windber’s Gene Heeter, Munhall’s Ken Herock, Tarentum’s Joe Kiselica, Greensburg’s Larry Niedzalkoski, Isabella’s Bill Schillings and Rogersville’s Jerry Yost.
“I was never garbage,” Herock, a seven-year NFL veteran and later longtime personnel director of the Oakland Raiders and general manager of the Atlanta Falcons, once stated.
“We were all pissed,” he added.
The beating Pitt took that afternoon on its home field in Pittsburgh paled in comparison to the beating poor Kuprok absorbed by those “garbage” Mountaineer players.
All afternoon, West Virginia ran sweeps right at Kuprok, sometimes sending as many as four and five players at him. Late in the game, when WVU was running out the clock on the way to a 20-6 upset victory, Kuprok was slow getting to his feet after another punishing Mountaineer running play.
Halfback Eli Kosanovich, from Weirton, West Virginia, in the state’s Northern Panhandle, about 35 miles west of Pittsburgh, stood over top of Kuprok and couldn’t resist remaining silent any longer.
Pointing up toward the scoreboard, Kosanovich said, “Hey Kuprok, if we’re garbage then what in the hell are you guys?”
As for O’Brien, Pitt’s student troll-squad leader, he doubled down in 1962. While attempting to make amends for his ’61 story that led to Pitt’s stunning defeat, he wrote another story titled “Dump the Garbagemen” leading up to the next WVU-Pitt game.
Corum put that article up on the team bulletin board, too, and West Virginia defeated Pitt 15-8, making it just the third time in more than a 40-year span that the Mountaineers had topped the Panthers in back-to-back games.
In part because they were called “garbage.”
And people outside the region wonder why West Virginians are not too fond of the Panthers!
Duke’s Peyton Jones runs the ball during the second half of the Blue Devils’ 45-17 win over Elon on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, at Wallace Wade Stadium in Durham, N.C.
The News & Observer
With roster management and player retention a big part of coaches’ jobs, Duke’s Manny Diaz had some good news to share at Christmastime: Quarterback Darian Mensah and wide receiver Cooper Barkate are both returning for the 2026 football season.
Mensah, a redshirt sophomore this season and the ACC’s leading passer, had talked with Diaz and others about his NFL possibilities. But the former Tulane transfer decided to come back for a second year with the Blue Devils, where he again is expected to receive one of the top NIL packages in college football.
Barkate, who transferred to Duke from Harvard before last season, had 68 catches for 1,069 yards for the 2025 ACC champions, averaging 15.7 yards a grab, and scored six touchdowns.
The Blue Devils, who face Arizona State in the Dec. 31 Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas, had just three players miss bowl practices, according to Diaz. One was offensive tackle Brian Parker II, who announced he would leave Duke early to enter the NFL Draft. Cornerback Chandler Rivers and defensive end Vincent Anthony Jr., also are preparing for the 2026 draft.
Duke also has another departure: running backs coach Chris Foster, who has joined the Florida staff after one year on the Diaz staff.
“The situation is always fluid, but I expect our retention rate to be very good, again,” Diaz said. Here’s a look at who the Devils will have leaving when the NCAA transfer portal opens Jan. 2:
Entering the portal
RB Peyton Jones: Became something of a forgotten man in the offense in 2025 with the emergence of Nate Sheppard and power running of transfer Anderson Castle. Played in four games after being Star Thomas’ backup in 2024 and rushing for 317 yards.
TE Vance Bolyard: The redshirt sophomore from Greensboro was used primarily on special teams in 2025. Played in 10 games in 2024.
OL Jack Small: A redshirt freshman this year, the 6-6, 300-pounder was used in just two games.
S Kenzy Paul: Redshirt junior saw little action in the secondary this season, playing in one game, the win over Clemson.
S Maliki Wright: Did not play as a freshman this past season.
CB Kyren Condoll: The California native played in one game in 2024 and again saw little action this season.
CB Vontae Floyd: Limited to three games because of injury in 2025, the sophomore played in 11 games in 2024 and was one of four true freshmen to letter for Devils.
DT Terry Simmons Jr.: The redshirt sophomore, a 6-2, 305-pounder, played nine games in 2025 as a backup defensive tackle and was at Duke for three seasons.
Chip Alexander
The News & Observer
In more than 40 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 15th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.
Dec. 26, 2025, 5:40 a.m. CT
NORMAN – For University of Oklahoma defensive lineman Danny Okoye, his current spot – as the face of a social media campaign seeking to spread awareness of a life-saving drug for those who have overdosed on opioids – was a case of fortuitous timing.
Okoye is the first of a series of OU student-athletes who will participate in an NIL (name, image and likeness) deal with the nonprofit HarborPath of Charlotte, North Carolina, to promote Narcan, the brand name under which the generic drug naloxone is distributed.
Dec. 26, 2025, 5:03 a.m. ET
- Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn has proposed the HUSTLE Act to create tax-deferred savings accounts for college athletes’ NIL income.
- The need for congressional intervention is questionable, given that other wealthy groups, like NFL players, do not receive similar legislative protection.
If the hollowness of the bowl season or the irrationality of the playoff system has you saddened by the state of college football, it could always be worse. Congress could get involved.
It’s already bad enough that NCAA apologists want Congress to grant college athletics an antitrust exemption. Now Tennessee Senator (and gubernatorial candidate) Marsha Blackburn, in a timely act of pandering, wants to give college athletes special tax-advantaged savings accounts – “for their own protection.”
Blackburn’s comically named “Helping Undergraduate Students Thrive with Long Term Earnings (HUSTLE Act) would allow certain college athletes to create tax-deferred accounts for their Name Image and Likeness (NIL) income.
Don’t get me wrong; I’m a big fan of saving and investing, especially in a tax-deferred vehicle. But the aim of this act ‒ somehow protecting young people from squandering their NIL riches ‒ raises an obvious question: Where exactly is the constitutional mandate (or even suggestion) for Congress to pass laws discouraging 19-year-old millionaires from buying expensive cars and jewelry?
If Blackburn is genuinely concerned about young, wealthy athletes squandering their money, why didn’t she start with the NFL? A widely cited 2009 Sports Illustrated article claimed that 78% of NFL players “face financial stress or bankruptcy” within two years of retirement. This figure was likely exaggerated, but a statistically sound study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 15.7% of NFL players file for bankruptcy within 12 years of retiring. Yet this hasn’t prompted any urgent Congressional push to save professional athletes from themselves.
If age is really the determining factor in financial responsibility, why is the fastest growing demographic of bankruptcy filers over 65? Why is the median age of someone filing for bankruptcy 49 and not 29?
Blackburn could, of course, propose legislation allowing college athletes to participate in the existing tax-deferred retirement accounts at their respective universities, but that would concede that the players are employees ‒ something universities want to avoid at practically all costs.
Not to be outdone by the Senate, the House of Representatives proposed the SCORE Act, which would grant NCAA institutions exemptions from antitrust laws – essentially codifying the illegal wage collusion the schools practiced for decades ‒ while also legally declaring that players are not employees of the universities that pay for their athletic services. Too many old timers simply can’t accept the end of decades of illegal (and in my opinion, immoral) athletic department business practices, so they are begging Congress to protect them.
Even if you concede the premise that 20-year-olds are incapable of making wise financial decisions and require assistance, why would Congress be the entity to turn to for financial wisdom?
David Moon, president of Moon Capital Management, may be reached atdavid@mooncap.com.
stl.pony said:
Feel like it’s largely being paid for by sales tax the new stadium development will generate.
Not in finance, so someone should absolutely check my math/analysis on this.
State of Kansas has an 8.25% sales tax. For the sales tax to generate 3 billion, the total sales would need to be about 36 billion. According to this article the Royals stadium and Arrowhead stadium collectively generate 55 million a year in tax revenue. (Don’t know what the analysis is to produce that; admit it could be wrong.) If you round it up to 60 million a year, the break even point is 600+ years.
If you take the numbers the Chiefs put out, 1 billion in economic impact for the region and 29 million in tax revenue per year. The break even point from tax revenue would be 1800 years?
I don’t know what is considered the region for the economic impact evaluation and how that changes based on if the stadium is on the Missouri side or the Kansas side of Kansas City. I also remember reading a report about the state fair of Texas that claimed that events like the state fair and sporting events don’t necessarily generate additional economic activity in a region, it just concentrates it into the event rather the wider community. (Admittedly, that could mean more tax revenue for one city in the region over another.) In my layperson’s opinion, a sports stadium deal like this doesn’t seem to be as smart of a decision as offering economic incentives to a Toyota or other non-entertainment business to move to your city.
As Michigan’s coaching search drags on, some overlooked possibilities could be floating back to the forefront. After apparently striking out on established head coaches like Kenny Dillingham and Kalen DeBoer, one SEC coordinator is exactly such a possibility for the Wolverines.
In a recent episode of Andy and Ari On3, Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman pointed out that the current coaching carousel has been virtually obsessed with established head coaches. Kentucky hired Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein as its next coach, but otherwise, schools have passed on coordinators in favor of coaches with head coaching experience.
Both Staples and Wasserman singled out Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann as a strong coaching possibility who Michigan should consider. “Why hasn’t he been in the conversation,” asked Wasserman. “He’s been intereviewed by schools, they just haven’t hired him,” noted Staples. “Normally, multiple coordinators would have either gotten these jobs or been finalists for these jobs.”
“If I were Michigan, I would hire Schumann over all the others,” said Wasserman. “I feel like if you’re Michigan, you want to get the guy that reshapes how you do things. It’s not that Jedd Fisch wouldn’t or Jeff Brohm wouldn’t….Don’t you want to go get the younger coordinator from Georgia who recruits his ass off and has been around big builds and has he defense playing like this at the right time and try to build you program around that?”
Schumann is only 35 years old, but has spent the last 17 seasons with either the Alabama or Georgia programs. He went to Alabama to be a student assistant coach under Nick Saban, then moved up to graduate assistant and then to Director of Football Operations.
When Kirby Smart left Alabama to take the Georgia head coaching job, Schumann went with him. First, he was the inside linebacker coach. In 2019, he added co-defensive coordinator to his responsibilities and ahead of 2024, he became the sole defensive coordinator
Georgia has historically been a very aggressive big-play-oriented defense, but Schumann has helped remake them on the fly. In 2025, the Bulldogs have held opponents to 15.9 points per game, second in the SEC, despite being near the bottom of the conference standings in sacks (tied for last), tackles for loss (next to last), and turnovers forced (13th).
Schumann was considered in 2023 for the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator role, but hasn’t been significantly linked with another collegiate job. Despite his relative youth, his experience inside two of the foremost college football dynasties of recent vintage makes him an intriguing possibility, should Michigan decide to take a chance.
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