It’s deja vu all over again

Tony Dorsett has heard the rumblings.

In 32 years, it would have been hard not to. Ever… Tony Dorsett has heard the rumblings.

In 32 years, it would have been hard not to. Ever since he walked away from the 1976 Sugar Bowl a national champion, a Heisman Trophy winner and the best running back to ever wear blue and gold, he’s heard them.

“Since leaving here, we’ve had a lot of backs that have come here, and people have said, ‘This guy reminds me of Tony Dorsett, and this guy reminds me of Tony Dorsett,'” Dorsett said.

Comparisons are just comparisons, he said, but he never saw a valid one in any Pitt back anyone thought matched up. Not “Swervin'” Curvin Richards, not Kevan Barlow.

Not until LeSean McCoy.

“This is the first guy that I’ve seen that reminds me of Tony Dorsett,” Dorsett said.

Dorsett and McCoy met formally for the first time yesterday at Pitt’s South Side practice facility, and both watched as a highlight reel patched together some of Dorsett’s best moves with McCoy’s.

The jukes, the bursts, the unadulterated speed – all spectacular in each player’s own right and all eerily similar to the other’s.

“I watched [McCoy] this season,” Dorsett said, “I don’t know where he gets it from, I don’t know where I got it from, but I saw him jump through a hole in one of [Pitt’s] games, and he did this little stutter and just, whew, took off in a blur.

“I said, ‘That’s Tony Dorsett.'”

In some cases, McCoy was better than Dorsett last season. The 5-foot-11-inch sophomore-to-be broke Dorsett’s Pitt freshman rushing touchdown record, scoring 14 in 12 games, one more than Dorsett’s 13.

As he approached Dorsett’s marks last season, McCoy, too, heard comparisons of his own achievements to Dorsett’s.

Yesterday, as the two sat and fielded questions, McCoy was asked again what it meant to be put beside an NFL and college football Hall of Famer.

McCoy smiled and shook his head.

“I mean