A band of blue-and-gold clad twentysomethings bounded down the steps from Heinz Field's new T station, which meant next to nothing on this particular Saturday afternoon.
The first of the bounders, it turned out, was bearing a giant N and D on his chest.
"Notre!" the kid shouted to no one in particular.
Then, after what was either a drunken or dramatic pause, "Dame!"
Neat.
So the rest of the single file down the stairway soon follows with a chant.
"Let's go Pitt! ... Let's go Pitt! ... Let's go Pitt!"
And within seconds, the hundreds stuck outside the gate awaiting North America's most oppressive stadium security piped up in hail-to harmony.
"Let's go Pitt! ... Let's go Pitt! ... Let's go Pitt!"
Pitt lost this game. The No. 5 Irish pounced on a few big early plays and prevailed, 42-30, as pretty much everyone, save perhaps those in the home locker room, had expected.
Pat Narduzzi and his players, now 6-3 overall, 4-1 in the ACC as they'll fly to Duke next week in resuming conference play, were predictably disappointed. Jimbo Covert's No. 75 was retired, and Pitt brought out all the brightest lights to celebrate: Dan Marino, Tony Dorsett, Mike Ditka and more.
This wouldn't have counted in the conference, but it could have counted for more.
"I'm never happy after a loss," the coach said. "In our three losses, we've played pretty good football teams, and Notre Dame might be the best. Our kids continue to fight. I try to go around the locker room and talk to every player. I tell them they've got to stick with it, keep fighting. They're going to fight until the end."
That's how it came across, for sure:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMnXJqP5emI
They have cause to be disappointed. They weren't nearly good enough.
Tyler Boyd, the Panthers' best player, wasn't that at all. He caught three passes and dropped just as many, one of those a touchdown.
"I needed to be better," he said. "I know that."
Nate Peterman, the Panthers' most pivotal player, wasn't nearly as awful as his 3-for-18 first-half line would suggest, given all the drops, but he also acknowledged early nerves.
"It was a little tight out there at first, for all of us, I think," the quarterback said.
The defense, the facet that has strikingly carried this team to this point, had the largest letdown: The Irish needed three plays to span 75 yards on their first drive. Ejuan Price, Matt Galambos and Lafayette Pitts mounted occasional pressure on Notre Dame quarterback DeShone Kizer, but it didn't keep him from completing 19 of 26 for 262 yards and -- oh, my -- five touchdowns. Will Fuller caught three of those as part of his seven catches for 152 yards, in part because Narduzzi inexplicably never got Avonte Maddox the over-the-top help he needed.
Queried about the latter, Narduzzi snapped back at a reporter: “We tried, but Fuller is a good football player. What are you going to do? We could have called you out of the stands and see if you could cover him, but I don’t think that would work.”
Uh, OK.
Brian Kelly, Notre Dame's coach, had a far less snarky and far more sensible explanation: "We felt like, if we could get Will matched up one-on-one, we wanted that."
Plain and simple, Pitt lost:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGHHLcMH2-0
And Pitt isn't there yet. Not on the field, and certainly not off it.
Aside from this rambunctious sellout -- the Irish fans hardly dominated the announced 68,400, as some of the Panthers' faithful had feared, but they sure did contribute -- Pitt has many miles toward becoming a big-time college football fan base. And fair or not, that starts with showing up. This crowd was wonderful from the home standpoint, but just nine days earlier, the 26-19 loss to North Carolina drew fewer than 20,000. For perception as much as reality, that just can't happen. Not with a 6-1 record, a top-25 ranking, a first-place opponent and a Thursday night national TV audience.
Recruits see that. Parents see that. High school coaches see that. Rival recruiters use it.
That's not a criticism. That's an eat-or-be-eaten fact of college football life.
So yeah, this was encouraging. It shows that if alumni and students are invested, they'll come. Even to Heinz Field, all of 3.2 whopping miles off the Oakland campus.
Nate Peterman is wrapped up after a 2-yard run by Notre Dame's Romeo Okwara. -- GETTY
A young Pitt fan watches the Panthers trailing in the fourth quarter. -- GETTY