The University of Pittsburgh Panthers Football team defeated the Syracuse Orange Saturday at Syracuse, 21-11, as Pitt’s ground offense exploded under the 221-yrd rushing eruption of LaRod Stephens-Howling. Stephens-Howling’s yardage was a career-high and included a 70-yard touchdown. Pitt finished the day with a 5-1 record to carry into next week’s game against the University of Central Florida. With a victory there, the Panthers could arrive back in town Oct. 21 with a 6-1 record, for a Homecoming match-up against Rutgers.

Syracuse slips to 3-3, after winning their last three games. The Orange came into Saturday's game statistically leading the nation in sacks with 25. But the Orange didn’t get one quarterback sack against Pitt until the fourth quarter, and it would be the only sack they got. Panther quarterback Tyler Palko took responsibility for it, saying, “The offensive line didn’t allow the one sack today. That was on me because that was my man to account for.”

Kiski Area grad Chris McKillop had a standout game highlighted by an important quarterback sack in the fourth quarter. Syracuse, on the Panther 9-yrd line, threatened to score on third and goal. McKillop, a Pitt defensive end, downed the Orange quarterback behind the line—he had 3 on the day, to lead the team in sacks—and then forced a fumble—his second of the day and third of the season—which was then recovered by Pitt’s other defensive end, Joe Clermond. It stopped the Orange cold and took a lot of momentum out of their game. McKillop also recovered a fumble, his second of the season.

Chris, a former linebacker, noted, “The coaches beat it into us about fundamentals, and today it really paid off. I’ve only played defensive end for a couple of years, and today the experience I’ve gained really began to show.”

Other Pitt Corner points:

Chris McKillop, shown here after the Toledo game

- Pitt QB Palko was happy to point out the success of the Panther running game Saturday. The dominance of the Panther air attack in the past games has kept the ball off the ground and in the air. It obscured their run and negated the need for Pitt running backs to showcase their abilities. That in turn only contributed to Pitt’s rep over the past few years as Wide Receiver U—to the detriment of the running back corps. Palko said, “It’s funny how things work out. For years, we’ve heard about how we didn’t have a running game. LaRod doesn’t need much of a hole to run. I can’t remember when we had a game like that.”

• Running back LaRod Stephens-Howling may have put an end to some teasing from his teammates. “Before I broke the long TD (70 yards) run,” Stephens-Howling said, “the guys were kidding me about getting caught in the open field. They couldn’t say it after that one. I didn’t have to do too much because the hole was there. Everyone was doing a great job of blocking, and I just had to be patient and wait for it to open up.”

• Pitt Head Coach Dave Wannstedt had been expecting Stephens-Howling to have a day like this sometime soon. “It’s not the number of rushes. It’s the result. We didn’t run the ball much more than we normally do. We knew it was coming with LaRod. It came today, obviously, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.”

• Pitt had ready a strong reserve of wide receivers in the hangar. It wasn't the normal duo of Darrel Strong and Derek Kinder, though Kinder did make 3 catches for 29 yrds. Several other receivers stepped into fill the normal amount of receptions by the duo. Oderick Turner caught 5 passes for 37 yards, Steve Buches caught 4 for 48 yards (one for a TD,) Cedric McGee snagged 4 passes for 45 yards, Conredge Collins lugged the pigskin two times for 10 yards, and T.J. Porter went 11 yards on one catch. Highly regarded rookie, Dorian Dickerson carried one time and got a 10-yrd gain in his second appearance.

• The Panther air force was still active—and efficient—in spite of the emergence and establishment of the running game. Tyler Palko lofted the ball 24 times, and 20 of those were caught for a total of 180 yrds. He will probably still lead the nation in passing efficiency after his performance Saturday against Syracuse.