For weeks now, I have wondered what it would have been like if Brandon Miree were in the… For weeks now, I have wondered what it would have been like if Brandon Miree were in the backfield on that sad day in October when the Panthers had eight measly rushing yards in a loss to Notre Dame.

I watched the clock tick down in Morgantown, W. Va., wondering whether a running back like Miree could have changed the outcome of that Backyard Beating, then I thought of the upcoming game against Miami, wishing that there was some way Miree would come back early.

Rumors of him not coming back for the season kept me wishing, until this week.

Head coach Walt Harris announced that Miree would be starting in the backfield against Temple, and at that moment, my dream came true – and so did Miree’s.

“I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time,” Miree said of his return to the field.

Miree was the difference in Saturday’s game against Temple. He rushed for a career-high 188 yards on 27 carries and put the ball in the end zone twice.

Miree powered for seven yards up the middle for the first touchdown, and on the second, he ran a sweep to the outside, pushing through defenders to just get inside the pylon.

Miree’s importance was not only felt in the goal-line situations. He set up wideout Larry Fitzgerald’s first touchdown, when he darted 76 yards to the Temple 7-yard line.

The amazing part of the run was the fact that Miree ran most of the 76 yards missing a shoe. After he broke through the defensive line and saw only members of the secondary blocking his way, his shoe slipped off.

“That was something else,” Miree said, laughing about the matter.

One has to wonder: If his shoe had not slipped off, would he have gone all the way?

“I would hope I would,” Miree said loudly.

Miree described how he was running towards the end zone and he knew that, without his shoe, he was not running at his top speed.

“I’m like ‘ah, gosh;’ I’m looking up at the Jumbotron, seeing the [defender closing in],” Miree said, shaking his head.

Miree did not know what to expect when entering the game, but he was just hoping for a good day.

His big day of 188 yards gave him 436 yards for the season – which leads the team.

Yes, that’s right. Miree, after playing his fourth game this year and first since Sept. 20, leads the team in rushing. That just goes to show what the Panthers have been missing, since the replacements were unable to get the job done.

Running back Jawan Walker has played in 11 games now and has only 395 yards to show for it.

Harris talked about how Miree is a bigger back and his fresh legs helped power him to the big day he had.

“He’s really [an] excellent north-and-south runner. He’s a lot less east-and-west than [Walker and Tim Murphy],” Harris said.

That was the difference. Miree finds holes and does not hesitate to hit them – a large reason why he averaged seven yards per carry against Temple and now averages 5.2 yards per carry on the season, as compared to Walker’s 3.8 and Murphy’s 2.7.

Although it hurts to think how Miree could have changed the outcome of Pitt’s losses, it’s an even better feeling to know that Pitt will have Miree for the biggest game of the year.

Attention Miami – Miree is back and this week, his shoes will be double-knotted.

Jimmy Johnson is a staff writer for The Pitt News and he wrote most of this column with one shoe on.