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The last bars of Pitt's fight song disappeared into the cold, nocturnal air of Heinz Field, and it was time for the players to head to the locker room and privately celebrate the historic 52-22 win over Virginia. Tech.
Pitt's coach, Pat Narduzzi, ordered his men to run into the locker room. Left-hand goalkeeper Connor Dintino, still more obedient than rebel, decided to challenge his coach on Saturday night.
"Narduzzi was telling everyone to" jog in, "and I just slowed down slowly, embracing the last feeling that separated me from Heinz," he said.
"I had about thirty members of my family and friends here, just looking where they were sitting and seeing them all, knowing that it was the last time before Heinz, surreal moment."
An appropriate description. Undoubtedly, surreal is a good way to describe what Pitt has created in the last five games.
After a season start of 3-4 and embarrassing defeats against Penn State, North Carolina and Central Florida in the first five weeks, Pitt is not only alive, but a one-time win.
In beating Virginia Tech, Pitt (6-4, 5-1) got a one-match lead in AC Coastal against Virginia (7-3, 4-2). If the Panthers win at Wake Forest or Virginia loses to Georgia Tech next Saturday, Pitt will win the Coastal and win his ticket to the ACC Championship game, as predicted by Narduzzi in August.
Even now, with the potentially decisive match coming on the schedule, Dintino refused to consider what could happen.
"Just another match in the ACC," he said. "Do not get carried away by emotions, do not look at the rankings. It's just managing the business. It is a business trip to Wake Forest. "
Another game is not a way to describe what happened at Heinz Field on Saturday.
Pitt's attack broke a historic record with Virginia Tech's defense, setting a school record of 654 yards (492 in the race), the second game of the season with more than 600 (Duke, 634). To put this into perspective, Pitt has exceeded 600 times only six other times.
Quds runner-up Qadree Ollison led the way with personal yards in yards (235), touchdowns (three) and the longest match in Pitt's history: a 97-yard run with 4 minutes and 43 seconds left. make. That broke his teammate Darrin Hall 's record of 92, set last year against Duke. Hall ran 186 for just seven runs, including a 73-yard touchdown run after Virginia Tech moved closer to 31-15 in the third quarter.
So, at the time of the last moments of the fourth quarter, the match was almost decided before Ollison's race, but there was no less fury associated with it than anything that happened on Saturday .
When Ollison clinched the ball near the goal line, Dintino and his back George Aston drove him through a wide hole in the Hokies' defense.
"I have not been touched before 30 or 40 meters," said Ollison, who attended the post-game press conference with Aston and six offensive linemen alongside him on the podium . "It shows how much they have blocked the game."
Dintino said that he had tried to follow Ollison, but that cornerback Caleb Farley was getting closer quickly. An armed arm of Ollison sent Farley on the field and Ollison did the rest of the race in gear and headed to the end zone as he was attempting for the Pitt Gymnastics team.
"I was wondering what he was going to do. He has just crossed it, "said Dintino, surprised.
"They are tough guys," he said of the two backs. "They run through the guys. They will not run out of limits. "
Ollison added, "As a half, it's my job to miss a guy. It's my job to overthrow a guy, not to let a guy attack me.
As he described it, "I'm just running with power, running with violence."
During this process, Ollison broke the 1000 yard mark for the season (1,054) and became only the sixth return in Pitt's history to reach that total twice (he also did in 2015). The peculiarity of this success is that two of the other five – Tony Dorsett and James Conner – were present to see him.
After helping the Steelers score 52 points two nights earlier on the same pitch, Conner spoke to the team before the game.
"He said we have an opportunity to do something big today," Ollison said, "and he was right."
After Dintino finally arrived at the locker room, celebrated with his teammates and later, met the media, he was asked if his tears had watered Heinz Field's turf. After all, Narduzzi himself needed a moment to pull himself together.
"No tears of the big guy," said Dintino. "Maybe later, maybe I'll cry when I'm with my mother."
Jerry DiPaola is an editor of Tribune-Review. You can contact Jerry at [email protected] or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.
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