Who would have thunk it? I mean, really, what are the odds? Who would have thought that the University of Pittsburgh Panthers football team would be entering November with a 6-2 record, and have to face not one but two teams in the Top Five teams in the country? Who would have figured that those two teams would be the newcomers to the Big East, Louisville and West Virginia?

And did anybody consider that Pitt could be 8-2 coming into those last two games? Yep, the Panthers face University of South Florida Nov. 4th, then UConn on Nov. 11th. USF and UConn may be not be pushovers, but when Tyler Palko, H.B. Blades, Chris McKillop and rest of the Pitt Air Force, Tactical Squad and Ground Assault Team are going full throttle, the Panthers got game.

OK, maybe I was the only one who didn’t see this coming. Blame it on the vision thing. Certainly Coach Dave Wannstedt made plans for it to be able to happen, giving opportunity to the left-handed rocket-launcher arm of Palko. Blades and Palko made plans for it, according to Chris McKillop (see the August Pitt Corner column) who said the seniors really worked at building team spirit over the summer. The defense made plans for it when players stepped up to fill holes left by season-ending injuries. Even the ground-pounding running game got into the act and established itself in October. And so now it comes down to the West Virginia (Nov. 16th) and Louisville (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) games. Let’s hope the Panthers can pull off at least one victory against these Top Five Titans. I know, but…

It’s not unthunkable.