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✦ top storylines: notre dame vs. pittsburgh By Lou Somogyi That might be enough drama for Kelly in one series to last a coaching lifetime. However, even before Kelly's arrival, Notre Dame had its own white-knuckle meetings with Pitt in 2008 and 2009. In 2008, the clash went through four overtimes — the most ever in a Notre Dame game — before Pittsburgh prevailed 36-33. In 2009, the final season under head coach Charlie Weis, the Irish staged a late rally before falling short, 27-22. Kelly is anticipating another fight to the finish. "They always just play us so hard," Kelly said. "Midwestern team, tough, blue collar, physical. They don't seem to like Notre Dame very much, and they want to beat Notre Dame. I think it's one of those games where you know you're going to go in and it's going to be a fight. We're prepared for that." The Snake-Pitt Game When Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly faces the Pitt Panthers — dating back to his coaching days at Cincinnati (2007-09) — the game has a way of turning into drama of the highest degree. • With Kelly's 2007 Cincinnati team leading Pitt 17-13 in the fourth quarter, the Panthers rallied to a 24-17 victory. ESPN's Pat Forde noted that Kelly was 42-1 in his last 43 games at Cincinnati and Central Michigan in games when he took a lead into the fourth quarter — with this being the sole defeat. • In 2008 the Cincinnati-Pitt "River City Rivalry" saw the Bearcats emerge with a 28‑21 win to claim the Big East crown over the Panthers and go to the Orange Bowl. • In one of the most exciting games of the 2009 college football campaign, 11‑0 and No. 5 Cincinnati rallied from 31‑10, 38‑24 and 44‑38 deficits at No. 14 Pitt to record a 45‑44 triumph Dec. 5. The winning score came with 33 seconds left on a 29-yard touchdown pass. Cincinnati's Mardy Gilyard totaled 374 all-purpose yards, but all the attention after the game was on whether Kelly would accept the recently vacated Notre Dame head coaching position. Four days later, it was officially announced that Kelly was the new Fighting Irish head coach. • At Notre Dame in 2010, Kelly and the Irish held on for a 23-17 victory when a Pitt fourth-down pass with 1:07 remaining was broken up by cornerback Gary Gray deep in Pitt territory. • In 2011, Notre Dame trailed 12‑7 at Pitt when sophomore quarterback Tommy Rees completed all eight of his pass attempts during an 85-yard touchdown march that ended with a six-yard toss to junior tight end Tyler Eifert, plus a two- Pittsburgh nearly ended Notre Dame's national title dreams last season, taking a 20-6 lead into the fourth quarter before falling 29-26 in triple overtime. photo by bill panzica point conversion to Eifert, with 6:48 left. Pitt moved to the Notre Dame 40 on the next series before two Irish sacks halted the drive. • In the mother of all Notre Dame-Pitt battles last Nov. 3, 8-0 Notre Dame's national title dreams were on the brink of collapse when the Panthers held a 20-6 lead entering the fourth quarter. Notre Dame finally knotted the score at 20 with 2:11 left on a five-yard touchdown pass from Everett Golson to Theo Riddick, followed by a scrambling Golson diving past the goal line for the two-point conversion to send the game into overtime. With a chance to seal the victory in the second overtime, Pitt's Kevin Harper missed a 33-yard field goal, and the Irish finally secured the 29-26 victory on Golson's one-yard sneak in the third overtime. Quick On The Draw One strength for Pitt earlier this year was its proclivity for fast starts. In the Sept. 2 opener against Florida State, the Panthers marched to a touchdown on the opening series for a 7-0 lead before losing 41-13. In its next game, versus head coach Bob Davie's New Mexico Lobos, Pitt grabbed a 21-3 first-quarter lead and scored touchdowns on six of its first nine series in the 49-27 win. In game three at Duke, the Panthers raced to a 20-7 first-quarter advantage and staved off the Blue Devils in a 58-55 shootout win. A week later against Virginia, Pitt scored both of its touchdowns in the first quarter in a 14-3 conquest, a 180-degree turn from the previous week's scoring fest. Meanwhile, in Notre Dame's first nine contests this year, the opponent scored first six times. The Irish fell behind 10‑0 ✦ Page 8 at Michigan and Purdue, 14‑0 within three minutes to Oklahoma, and also saw USC and Air Force take 7‑0 leads. Last week, Navy took a 20-17 lead into the halftime locker room. The bad news for Pitt is it has tended to fade as the game progressed. During its 4-4 season, it outscored the opponent 65-44 in the first quarter and 71-59 in the second, but was outscored 50-38 in the third and 61‑35 in the fourth. On the reverse side, Notre Dame was only 55-52 in the first quarter during its 7-2 start and lost 72-68 in the second quarter. But it outscored foes 59‑23 in the third and 79-60 in the fourth — holding both USC and Air Force scoreless in the second half to end the October slate. Defensive Doings In the last four meetings with Pitt, Notre Dame has averaged only 20 points per game and never tallied more than 23 in regulation. Here is what is especially noteworthy: It entered the fourth quarter averaging only nine points against the Panthers. In 2009, despite the presence of Jimmy Clausen at quarterback and receivers such as Golden Tate and Michael Floyd, the Irish trailed 20-3 entering the fourth quarter at Pitt. In 2011, Notre Dame had only seven points going into the final quarter, but managed eight in the final frame to eke out a 15-12 win. Last year, Notre Dame had six points and zero touchdowns when it entered the final quarter versus Pitt. Led by senior defensive tackle Aaron Donald, who is the nation's career sacks leader (27.5) among current Football Bowl Subdivision players, the Panthers defense will be expected to hold their own again versus an up-and-down Irish offense.