After holding a narrow 20-17 halftime, Pitt blew the game open in the fourth quarter and found a way to hold on for a 44-17 win. The Panthers scored three consecutive touchdowns and never looked back.
Ray Graham delivered an eye-opening performance, rushing for 226 yards. He also caught four passes out of the backfield and tallied 42 total yards through the air. Graham started off strong, leading the FBS in rushing, but dropped off a bit in the losses at Iowa and against Notre Dame. But after this effort, expect to hear his name mentioned more on a national level – especially because the game was on a Thursday night and all eyes were on Pitt.
The much maligned Tino Sunseri had a strong night. He finished completing 22 of 33 passes for 216 yards and a touchdown. Sunseri didn’t throw for a ton of yards, but he didn’t make any major mistakes. He also suffered several drops and played probably his best game all season. There have been plenty of calls for Tino to lose his starting spot to Trey Anderson after every game this season, but that shouldn’t be the case after tonight’s contest.
For South Florida, it was more of the same. They came in with a lot of hype with a 4-0 record, but now will have lots of work to do in the Big East. B.J. Daniels didn’t have a horrible night, but he was clearly frustrated by the Pitt defense, which came from all angles, sacking the quarterback on a number of occasions. Pitt’s defense completely shut down USF in the second half, pitching a shutout.
With the short week this week, Pitt now gets some extra time to rest up before making a road trip to Rutgers next weekend. For more post-game analysis, head over to SB Nation Pitt blog Cardiac Hill.