You can watch the ESPN.com highlights of the game here.

The 13-9 upset of WVU last year was supposed to be the watershed game showing that Pitt was coming together under Wannstedt. There was the talk of how the team hadn’t quit all season. That, but for the injuries, Pitt would have at least won one or two more of those close losses. That the team had turned the corner by the end of the season and that 2008 payoff would be there. That built over the offseason and suddenly Pitt was the trendy “darkhorse” pick of the Big East. Even getting into the top-25.

Of course the team went out and laid a tremendous turd in front of the home crowd and ESPN-U against Bowling Green. And the narrative shifted to, nothing has changed. The three subsequent wins really didn’t do much to alter that perception.

Now, another national win over USF on Thursday night and it is a return to the corner turning for Pitt.

There’s a lot of season left for Pitt, but on one redemptive night in the Sunshine State, a beaten and bewildered football team finally bathed itself in radiant glory. It couldn’t have come a moment too soon, for now the pressured and panicky Panthers might actually be able to view a football season as a joy, and not a burden.

Why is this win so cathartic for everyone involved in the Pittsburgh program? Very simply, the Panthers — much like Clemson, Michigan State, Arizona State, Cal, and a handful of other programs one could readily rattle off — have found themselves frozen and fearful in the face of old demon pressure. Suffocated and stifled in the face of massive expectations, Pitt has languished in the middle of the Big East over the past few years, behind the likes of West Virginia, Louisville, Connecticut, Rutgers, and South Florida. And while Louisville and Rutgers now stand beneath the Panthers in the Big East pecking order, the fact remains that the Cardinals and Scarlet Knights did enjoy moments of supreme satisfaction in recent times. Pitt has not enjoyed real postseason success since the days of Walt Harris … and that one run to the 2005 Fiesta Bowl proved to be an aberration. The words “Pitt football” and “underachievers” have belonged in the same sentence for most of this decade.

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The Panthers haven’t fully arrived, but with this big breakthrough now in their pocket, they might finally be able to display a mentally liberated brand of ball that could bring big things to the school that brought America the likes of Tony Dorsett, Hugh Green, and Dan Marino. One game does not a program make, but one game can enable a program to experience a change of character and confidence. Everyone associated with Pitt football can only hope that Thursday night’s triumph in Tampa will prove to be such a turning point.

Plus the media really likes Wannstedt. He talks nice to them.  So they want him to succeed.

“We needed this one so bad,” Wannstedt said.

This might be the program-changing win that Wannstedt so desperately needed. He came into the game bowless in three seasons. The high from the West Virginia win quickly wore off at the beginning of this season. But the Panthers are 4-1 and on top of the Big East, ready to jump back into the polls.

There’s some personality to these inconsistent Panthers. LeSean McCoy has now surpassed 100 yards for the second consecutive game and Phil Bennett’s defense is showing some grit.

And now, along with UConn, Pitt is in (oh, how I fear typing these words) control of its own destiny.

Jan Wannstedt planted a kiss under that glorious soup-strainer above her husband’s lip late Thursday night. “What does this mean for your bye week?” she asked her husband. “It means I’m going to see my grandson in Chicago,” Dave Wannstedt replied.

Oh, Thursday’s 26-21 win at No. 10 South Florida means much more than one happy kid in the Windy City getting a visit from grandpa. It means Wannstedt’s Pitt team, left for dead after an opening week clunker against Bowling Green, sits in the driver’s seat in the Big East after two conference wins – both on the road. It means the Panthers, architects of three consecutive fourth-quarter comebacks and three consecutive wins against ranked teams, might be made of the kind of stuff it takes to survive a potentially wild conference race.

Only a little more than a month into the season and we’ve had huge downs and ups.

I’ve had a few hours to sleep on it. Haven’t looked at the media yet. This was a great game for Pitt. Not just because they won — though that was a huge part of it. It was how they did it. Without playing a perfect game.

They made mistakes. They screwed up on special teams. They turned the ball over a couple times. Stull threw some horrible passes. Mistakes were made. Yet, instead of retreating into conservatism and everything Wannstedt has usually done, he let the team stay aggressive and keep attacking. The defense kept going after Grothe. The offense still threw the ball — downfield.

The players responded. Their energy was excellent the entire game. It was the sort of effort and game Pitt fans have been wanting to see. It’s not about making the offense more “exciting” or something it isn’t. It is seeing Pitt use the players in ways that takes advantage of their skill sets rather than just jamming them into the system regardless of fit.