PITTSBURGH (AP) -The last time Pitt had a chance to be this good so late in a season, the Panthers were ranked No. 1 and Dan Marino was their quarterback.
That was 1982, so long ago that none of the current Panthers players was born.
As far as Pittsburgh coach Dave Wannstedt is concerned, it’s been too long.
The No. 20 Panthers (6-1, 3-0 in Big East) can open a season 7-1 for the first time in 27 years, and stay atop the conference, if they defeat South Florida (5-1, 1-1) on Saturday.
“You want to accomplish something that has never been done or something that hasn’t been done in a long time,” Wannstedt said. “So I think all those things are healthy things to talk about that. Last week, with our seniors never having beaten Rutgers, we didn’t put our heads down. Our guys took it the other way: We’re going to get this done.”
Getting them done against South Florida won’t be easy.
e in three previous visits to Pittsburgh, and they’re coming off a 34-17 loss to Cincinnati that put them out of the Top 25. The loss created a sense of urgency to not let a losing streak develop, as it did a year ago when they lost three in a row and five of their final seven after being ranked No. 10.
“You have to move on. You’ve got to move forward,” said South Florida coach Jim Leavitt, whose team’s slide a year ago began with a 26-21 loss to Pitt. “The Big East is strong. You’ve got to be able to deal with things and move forward. If you can’t, you’re not ever going to have a shot.”
One more loss, and the Bulls will be struggling to remain among the Big East’s upper-tier teams.
“They’re very similar to us,” Pitt running back Dion Lewis said. “The style that they play. The talent they have, the athleticism. If you look at their (defensive front) four guys and compare them to our four, that would be the team that would come to mind first.”
Lewis is one of college football’s surprise players, averaging 131 yards as a freshman, but getting that many yards against a South Florida defensive front led by defensive ends George Selvie and Jason Pierre-Paul will be a challenge. Selvie was an All-American two years ago and Pierre-Paul has 8 1/2 tackles for a loss.
Now, Lewis, his replacement, needs 82 yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark after gaining 180 yards during a 24-17 victory against Rutgers last week.
“At the end of the game against Rutgers, you could see in their eyes they didn’t want to play anymore,” Lewis said. “We’re wearing them down. … As long as we keep pounding the ball, I believe we’ll eventually wear a team down.”
Pitt’s biggest worry probably is getting worn down by a difficult closing stretch. Four of the final five games are at home, but the Panthers still must play No. 8 Cincinnati, No. 20 West Virginia and Notre Dame.
Facing a similarly back-loaded schedule in 2006, Pitt was 6-1 but lost its final five games.
“This is a different football team, it’s a different year,” Wannstedt said. “Those things really have no bearing on what we’re doing.”
South Florida has a different quarterback than Pitt has seen, now that a knee injury has ended Matt Grothe’s college career. Redshirt freshman B.J. Daniels took over three games ago and already leads the Bulls in passing (810 yards) and rushing (365 yards). He has thrown for seven touchdowns and run for four.
Pitt’s only loss occurred when it couldn’t shut down North Carolina State quarterback Russell Wilson, who threw for 322 yards and ran for 91 yards during a 38-31 victory on Sept. 26.
Sheard said. “We got in trouble with that against N.C. State and lost containment on Wilson, so we have to do a better job. He (Daniels) was a top prospect, and I watched him against Cincinnati – he can run and throw, so he’ll be hard to stop.”
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