Savage, Street, Boyd and Conner earn national recognition following Pitt’s 55-point outburst

Pitt’s offensive explosion Saturday in a 58-55 victory at Wallace Wade Stadium against the Duke Blue Devils led to multiple Panthers earning weekly honors from several organizations. 

Redshirt senior quarterback Tom Savage finished Saturday’s game having completed 23 of 33 passes for 424 yards and six touchdowns. As a result, Savage was named the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Week, the Walter Camp Football Foundation’s National Offensive Player of the Week and the ACC Offensive Back of the Week.

“I thought he made good decisions. I thought he had some poise,” head coach Paul Chryst said. “I like the way he played.”

Savage’s performance accounted for the fourth-best single-game yardage total by a Pitt quarterback in school history and marked the most yards thrown in a game since 1994. Savage’s six touchdowns were the most thrown by a Panthers signal-caller since Pete Gonzalez tossed seven against Rutgers in 1997. 

In addition, the six scores thrown by Savage tied the Atlantic Coast Conference’s single-game record, set in 1987.

Savage’s recognition as the Walter Camp National Player of the Week is the fourth garnered by a Panther since 2004, following quarterback Tyler Palko (2004), linebacker Scott McKillop (2008) and running back Ray Graham (2011).

Other candidates for the Davey O’Brien honors included Clemson’s Tajh Boyd and Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel.

The ACC also named redshirt senior receiver Devin Street as the conference’s Receiver of the Week and freshman receiver Tyler Boyd as the Rookie of the Week.

Street set a personal single-game record Saturday with 166 receiving yards on six catches for an average of 27.6 yards per catch. Street also hauled in two touchdowns from 67 and 21 yards out. 

Opposite Street, Boyd racked up 154 yards and three touchdowns over eight receptions. The three touchdowns for Boyd were the first time a Pitt freshman caught three scoring passes in a game since Larry Fitzgerald accomplished the feat against Virginia Tech in 2002. 

Boyd also posted his second consecutive 100-yard receiving game and became the first freshman to do so since Antonio Bryant in 1999. Both Fitzgerald and Bryant won the Biletnikoff Award in their sophomore seasons. Boyd now leads the ACC with his four touchdown receptions alongside his average of 195 all-purpose yards per game. Nationally, Boyd ranks ninth and fifth in those categories, respectively.

Boyd was also named the National Freshman of the Week by 247 Sports for the second week in a row and was the co-honoree along with Pitt freshman running back James Conner via Athlon Sports. 

Conner turned in his best performance of the season to date, running for 173 yards on 26 carries. Conner averaged 6.7 yards per carry, scored a touchdown and was not stopped behind the line of scrimmage on any attempt.

“I thought he ran pretty well and earned the right for more carries,” Chryst said. “We had the one drive where he had three back-to-back good runs.”