Pitt football’s latest upset follows familiar script, gives program another signature win

Perhaps sitting around their Thanksgiving tables Thursday night, Pitt football fans talked themselves into what might transpire Friday afternoon at Heinz Field.

“It’s happened before, right? They did it 10 years ago against West Virginia. They did it last year against Clemson. Why not?”

Somehow, this program consistently finds a way to find a way. Even when the outlook appears bleak, it digs deep and does something to shock you. It did so under coach Dave Wannstedt in 2007, winning at No. 2 West Virginia for an upset of a bitter rival now known simply as “13-9” to many in the fan base.

It did so last year under current coach Pat Narduzzi, with a 43-42 stunner at No. 3 Clemson — which was ranked second in some polls — the only loss for a team that went on to win the national championship.

On Friday, the Panthers did it again, knocking off secondranked and undefeated Miami, 24-14, in a result that, paradoxically, was as incredible as it was predictable.

“It’s a big-time win in Pittsburgh; maybe one of the biggest wins you’ve had in the city of Pittsburgh for Pitt football,” Narduzzi said after the game, “and it gives belief to our kids that we can do it any time.”

The similarities to that West Virginia game already were

evident going into this one. Fans outside the stadium buzzed about it. Both Pitt squads entered 4-7, facing the No. 2 team in college football. Friday, Kenny Pickett, the star of the game with three touchdowns, became the first freshman quarterback to start for Pitt since Pat Bostick — in 2007.

That also was the last year Pitt didn’t make a bowl game, but the disappointing campaign became a footnote once the Panthers ruined West Virginia’s national title dreams. Time will tell whether 2017 earns the same distinction.

Of course, that was then, and this is now. But this team found a way to channel the energy and urgency that enabled it to play the spoiler once again just like last November at Clemson. So what is it about the Pitt Panthers, regardless of who’s coaching or who’s playing, that makes them such a threat to do the unthinkable seemingly every chance they get?

“Honestly, that’s what we do: We beat No. 2 teams,” junior linebacker Elijah Zeise declared afterward. “Simple as that.”

Zeise knows Pitt’s tradition as well as anyone in the locker room, considering his father, Paul, covered the team for nearly a decade for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where he is still a columnist.

But few likely recognized the magnitude of the school’s newest gridiron triumph: Given that the memorable victories over West Virginia and Clemson were on the road, Miami is nowthe highest-ranked opponent Pitt has defeated at homein the 128 years the university has played football.

That means that even if you remember what was surely a rowdy shutout of No. 3 Fordham, 13-0, in 1941 at Pitt Stadium, you had never seen such a Pitt win.

“It’s more exciting because this happened in front of our home crowd, our hometown,” said junior running back Qadree Ollison. “This one’s just a little different. I don’t think anybody gave us a shot besides people in this locker room.”

Junior offensive lineman Brian O’Neill insisted that anyone who billed this matchup as “David vs. Goliath” through the prism of previous Pitt longshots was dead wrong.

“I said to the guys a couple times, and even last night, I’m sick and tired of hearing about the West Virginia game and the Clemson game last year,” O’Neill said.

Indeed, the Miami betting line closed with Pitt a 12-point underdog, at least according to one oddsmaking service.

For an unranked team facing an unbeaten one that had won 15 games in a row spanning two seasons, maybe it would have been higher if not for Pitt’s recent history. In fact, this is now Pitt’s fourth consecutive win against a topthree team when unranked, which also includes a 28-21 victory at No. 3 Virginia Tech in 2002 (the Panthers lost two weeks later at No. 1 Miami but were ranked 17th by then).

If there’s one aspect of the day Narduzzi wished he could change, it was that only 35,978 were in attendance, but Pitt’s attendance issues were entirely an afterthought as the Panthers wowed their faithful.

If nothing else, taking the air out of the Hurricanes was yet another reminder that when Pitt faces a heavy favorite, it makes sense to show up or tune in, because you never know.

“Every game gives you an opportunity,” said Mike McGlynn, a senior offensive lineman for the 2007 team whose graduates ended their college careers just as the 2017 ones did. “You only get 12 guaranteed opportunities a year, and for those guys, just to get to put that Pitt helmet and Pitt uniform on and play for the brother next to you, anything can happen.”

And with Pitt football, “anything” so often does.