Football: Street’s record-day a highlight in Pitt’s last-second loss

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Devin Street wrapped up his high school playing days as an unheralded wide receiver prospect from Liberty High School in eastern Pennsylvania. Pitt and Connecticut were the only Bowl Championship Series-caliber teams that had presented offers to Street, but the 6-foot-4 wide receiver had a vision.

On Saturday at Navy, Street became the all-time receptions leader in the history of Pitt football.

After the game, he claimed he saw such a feat coming.

“I accomplished what I came here to do,” Street, a fifth-year senior, said without hesitation.

Street’s moment came early in the second quarter. Deep in Pitt’s territory, he reeled in a pass from quarterback Tom Savage, good for 7 yards and the record. 

With the catch, Street pulled ahead of Latef Grim on the list, who penciled his name at the top in 2000. The 5-foot-11, 185-pound Grim shined under Walt Harris-led Pitt teams of the late 1990s, catching 178 passes in three seasons.

Street finished Saturday’s game with nine catches and 96 yards, pushing his career receptions total to 186. And aside from surpassing Grim’s previous milestone, Street also slid into third place on the all-time receiving yards list, passing Grim and Larry Fitzgerald. Street has now racked up 2,692 career receiving yards behind only Dietrich Jells (3,003) and Antonio Bryant (3,061).

Street’s accomplishment went unknown to Savage, and Street did not spend too much time talking about it himself, saying it was marred by the last-second loss.

“It’s bittersweet,” said Street. “We got to put the puzzle pieces together. They’re scattered right now.”

Penalized PanthersEntering the contest, Navy was the least-penalized team in college football, averaging just three per game. Those numbers didn’t lie Saturday, either.

The Midshipmen were penalized four times for 27 yards compared to Pitt’s 7-for-45. Additionally, Navy is now second in the nation in penalty yards per game with just 29. Head coach Paul Chryst tipped his cap to Navy’s discipline while pointing to free yardage as a prime reason why Pitt is 4-3 and not 5-2.

“We hurt ourselves with penalties early in the second half. So all of a sudden, we’re backed up. We’re still third-and-10 or first-and-20 or second-and-20,” said Chryst. “Their field position changed a little bit. We didn’t do a good enough job with changing field position.”

To reiterate what Chryst had said, Street and Savage repeatedly used the same idiom.

“We shot ourselves in the foot,” they both said.

Chryst speculated that Navy also schemed well. He said the team made some necessary adjustments in the locker room during halftime to keep Pitt’s offense from pounding the football.

“I thought early, we did a good job at running the ball consistently. They made some adjustments and made some plays, so we couldn’t just run at will. And that’s the game,” Chryst said.

As for Pitt’s defense, Chryst said that because the Midshipmen rarely touched the ball in the first half, he wasn’t able to judge what they were aiming to accomplish until it was too late. After all, Pitt had dominated the time of possession in the first half, 22:18 to 7:42.

“We didn’t really know what their attack was. We didn’t see enough plays, whether they weren’t getting to [their offense] or what,” Chryst said.

Street walked out of the locker room after Saturday’s loss clutching a marked-up game ball. He tried his best to conceal it as he took blame for Pitt’s second-half collapse, saying that “little things” keep the Panthers from being great.

“I don’t think we are an average team. I think we are a good team who has the potential to be a great team, but in order for us to be a great team, we have to do the little things and not shoot ourselves in the foot. We have to be disciplined,” Street said.