It’s been quite a week for James Conner and media attention. But he is trying to ignore it.

After Conner rushed for 177 yards against Florida International, he broke another Tony Dorsett record, this time for most yards by a Pitt back in the first three games.

Conner trumpeted the achievement, placing a photo on Instagram. It didn’t take long for his phone to ring. It was Aaron Donald, Pitt’s highly decorated former defensive tackle, who knows a little bit about how to handle fame.

“He said to me, ‘Just stay focused and just play ball,’ ” Conner said. “ ‘Those individual awards will come. You can’t worry about that now.’

“I listen to every word he says. I’m not thinking about that stuff anymore.”

Conner took Donald’s advice one step further and decided to take a break from social media.

“People have negative things to say,” he said. “If I keep thinking about that, it will throw me off my game.

“I figure time spent on Twitter could be spent in the weight room or in the film room. I’m glad (Donald) reached out to me.”

Still, there has been a good deal of media attention this week. And the thing that I keep seeing in these stories is a very different kind of focus. One that seems to be on a big picture of his future and an unshakable confidence.

Note, I’m not saying bad. I’m just taking note on how odd these little snippets are.

Conner, 19, has received several requests for autographs from family, friends and others who would like to be his friend. He is fine with that, but he wants to do it right. So, he spent 45 minutes sitting at Gallagher’s dining room table, practicing the proper way to sign his name.

Then there was the Sports Illustrated piece. A lot of the attention was on his roughhousing with his brothers and “toughening him up” stuff. But these parts caught my attention.

When Conner was a junior at McDowell High in Erie, Pa., the star was four-star prospect Greg Garmon. Conner served as a blocking back in a triple option, and, fearing he would go unnoticed, asked to play defensive end as well. “I thought it would come easy,” Conner says. “One-one-one to the quarterback, and I didn’t think I’d lose a one-on-one.”

He finished with 12 sacks and earned state All-Class AAAA honors on the line. Months later, at Pitt’s summer camp, he stood out enough to earn an offer as a defensive end. Conner committed on that premise, but once he moved to tailback as a senior and rolled to 1,680 yards with 21 touchdowns, he asked Rudolph if he might get a shot to carry the ball in college, too.

[As a depressing aside, Greg Garmon chose Iowa and was part of the legacy of AIRBHG, and then really went south.]

Nothing about the way Conner carries himself. Or the way he acts. Anything really says he is a “me first” kid.

Quite the opposite. Babysitting the small child of a family friend while doing a TV interview. His care and concern for his high school friend and her family. Nothing in his actions says that. He just has a very strong focus.

Yet he seems to carry a belief/confidence that he can do what he sets his mind to. And, well, so far he has.

His room to grow is scary. “He’s someone who snaps in really fast,” offensive coordinator Joe Rudolph says. “It was probably getting through about the middle of last year and how he approached the bowl, you could see all of sudden where he made this transformation. He had successes and failures, and he said, ‘You know what? I can do this. Nothing is going to stop me from doing this.’ It’s been unwavering since then.”

Conner has made it clear that he expects to play pro football. He hasn’t revealed one, but it sure seems that he has a long-term plan.

Glen, Richard and Michael all enrolled in college but didn’t last long. They’re now in their mid-20s, working one or two jobs while attempting to finish what they started. James, meanwhile, was conscientious enough to call his mother or brothers for no-questions-asked pick-ups when he encountered uncomfortable social scenes in high school. He has never particularly loved school, his mother says, but he realizes it is a means to an end. When his football traction at McDowell High and Pitt seemed a bit tenuous, he initiated change to find a foothold and become indispensable. “‘J’ is the one who has the personality for success,” says Michael, who now works as an Air Force maintenance crew chief. “He has made all the right decisions.”

No arguments here.