Pitt ends first season in ACC with 6-6 record

Before the coin flip that would eventually lead to Pitt’s sixth loss of the season Friday, most of Miami’s defensive players decided to remove their tops after arriving in the visitor’s locker room. They then bolted to warm up on Heinz Field’s blistering-cold field shirtless. 

Miami’s antics were designed by players to remind everyone on their sideline that there’s no correlation between weather and performance: Good football can be played in both Pittsburgh and the tropical climate of Miami Gardens. Miami hadn’t played a road game north of the Carolinas this season until it was faced with windy, 35-degree conditions in Pittsburgh on Friday. 

“What does weather mean compared to what they’ve been through the last 28 months?” asked Miami head coach Al Golden after the game. “I think that maybe this is a new breed and maybe a new mindset that [our players] have. If some of the seniors helped us learn that today, then that’s great.”

Golden was correct. The team collected a 41-31 win in nontraditional ways — ones that the topless Hurricanes hadn’t envisioned.

Coming into Friday, Miami posted 2.45 sacks per game. The Panthers brought a battered offensive line into the contest: Left tackle Adam Bisnowaty and left guard Cory King, along with tight end Scott Orndoff, were all sidelined because of injury.

Yet the line held its own, allowing just one sack and enough time for quarterback Tom Savage to throw for 281 yards and two touchdowns.

Savage also threw just one interception to Miami’s defense, which is now tied for fifth nationally in interceptions with 18. Savage threw the pick on a touchdown attempt with 2:02 remaining in the fourth quarter.

“I think we just have to execute better in the red zone and take advantage of getting down there and putting some points on the board,” said Savage, who finished the game 24-of-43. 

Saturday marked his sixth consecutive game with 200 yards or more, but Savage knew it could have been a higher number had he remained consistent deep in Miami’s territory. “That’s too good a team to get down in the red zone and not take advantage of it,” Savage said.

Coming into the game, Miami was fifth nationally in kickoff returns with a 25.87 average. Pitt’s special teams had come under fire in recent weeks for poor play, but the Panthers held Miami’s return specialists to a mere 18.4 yards per return. 

All the while, Pitt’s kick returners brought the ball out much further when kicked to. Freshman tailback Rachid Ibrahim, who was also introduced as the team’s third kick returner Friday, helped give Savage and company decent field position on several occasions. 

“I think he’s got the ability to do anything,” said fellow kick returner Tyler Boyd of Ibrahim. “I feel confident about him going back there and making a big play, and that’s what he did, three big plays back to back, so once I saw that, I knew he had what he had on point.”

In the second quarter, Boyd became Pitt’s all-time freshman receptions leader, surpassing Larry Fitzgerald, who caught 69 passes in 2002. 

Boyd now has 77, good for second on the Pitt’s all-time receptions in a season list.

“I don’t think you ever quite know how good someone is until you’re with him,” head coach Paul Chryst said of Boyd. “I know he can be a lot better. He means a ton to this team.”

Boyd caught nine passes for 98 yards, and in the fourth quarter, he caught a touchdown pass that gave him 1,001 yards in 2013 and allowed him to become the first Panther to reach the 1,000 yards-in-a-season milestone since Jonathan Baldwin in 2009. 

Boyd insisted the records don’t mean much unless his team comes away victorious.

“Where I come from, all we do is win. That’s what I always think about, winning first and statistics later,” Boyd said.

Miami’s shirtless defenders who roamed the field before the game had prepared for Devin Street — not Boyd — to be Pitt’s primary threat at wide receiver. Street was unable to play because of an elbow injury suffered at Syracuse last week.

Redshirt junior receiver Kevin Weatherspoon was pulled during Friday’s game because of an ankle injury, which put redshirt freshman Chris Wuestner and redshirt senior Ed Tinker on the field more often.

Miami defenders also watched Pitt junior running back Isaac Bennett explode for 141 yards on the ground. Ibrahim and freshman James Conner added 73 yards to the rushing-yards equation.  

Bennett was averaging less than 60 yards per game before then, and he had only broken 100 yards against New Mexico and Old Dominion.

“We have so many guys on the team that can step up and make big plays, and that’s what’s scary about our team. We have a lot of talent and a lot of young guys that stepped up and handled the pressure well,” Savage said.