Behind a defensive unit unable to defend, Pitt lost its season opener to a Football Championship…

Bobby Mizia / Senior Staff Photographer

Star running back Ray Graham returned to the field after a knee injury last season.

Behind a defensive unit unable to defend, Pitt lost its season opener to a Football Championship Subdivision opponent.

The upset 31-17 loss to Youngstown State, which was first-year head coach Paul Chryst’s debut in charge of the Panthers, also marked the first time Pitt had ever lost to an FCS school.

Early on, Pitt quarterback Tino Sunseri looked methodical and confident throwing for 11-for-17 for 140 yards in the first half.

Pitt’s running game consisted of returning senior Ray Graham and sophomore Isaac Bennett splitting carries, while freshman running back Rushel Shell didn’t feature in the contest as he served a suspension, along with five other players for disciplinary reasons.

Chryst said the team won’t cut corners when it comes to player conduct whatever effect that has on the field.  He declined to comment specifically on the nature of the player conduct.

“That is an area of our program that will not be sacrificed, and we need to hold our players accountable for it,” he said.

Graham, despite fumbling on Pitt’s first drive, showed flashes of the type of player he was before injuring his ACL last year, most notably with a 22-yard cut-back run in the second quarter. And Bennett scored the Panther’s only rushing touchdown, a four-yard tally.

After the game, Graham said he knows he’s not back to his previous form, but views this as a start.

“It felt great to run around,” Graham said. “I wasn’’t thinking about [my knee].”

A dejected Andrew Taglianetti quickly made assurances that the team and the defense that people saw on Saturday don’t accurately represent Pitt’s potential.

“That’s not the real Pitt out there,” the senior safety said. “We realize that in the locker room.”

Graham, who finished with 71 yards on 14 carries, knows that its on him and the other seniors to lead the team on from this debacle.

In the first half, Sunseri found open receivers and didn’t always opt for the big play, but when he did choose to go downfield, he had success.

The redshirt senior continued to manage the game after the break, going 8-for-13 with one touchdown, but he and the offense couldn’t undo the mess that the Pitt defense created.

The defense could do nothing to unsettle Youngstown quarterback Kurt Hess, who rarely, if ever, saw pressure.

Hess went 13-for-23 for two touchdowns, while Youngstown amassed 381 total offensive yards.

Beginning the second half, Youngstown picked up where it left off, exposing numerous flaws in the Panthers’ defense.

On the first possession of the third quarter, the Penguins marched down the field, using some trickery in the red zone and fooling Pitt completely when running back Jamaine Cook took a pitch and preceded to lob a 21-yard pass over the unsuspecting defense to a waiting Will Shaw, who walked into the end zone.

That score gave the Penguins a commanding 21-10 lead, a lead which the Panthers chased for the remainder of the contest.

As the clock wound down, swaths of yellow seats were the few witnesses to the end of the shock result.

“Can we go forward?” Chryst asked reflectively in the post game press conference.

“I’m looking forward to going through it with these guys. We knew there was going to be adversity. You get a chance to go back to work tomorrow, and now we have a short week with Cincinnati on Thursday.”