I'm not sure if Notre Dame fans are properly prepared for the rude awakening they'll receive on November 1^st when Pittsburgh rolls into South Bend.  Under Diamond Dave Wannstedt, the Panthers have been consistently underachieving in everything but recruiting rankings, failing to make a bowl in any of his three seasons, even with quality signal-caller Tyler Palko under center for two of them.  Perhaps the turnaround those in the Three Rivers area have been waiting for began on that chilly December evening last winter, when Wannstedt's crew pulled off the most improbable of upsets in Morgantown.  In denying West Virginia its championship bid, the Panthers began the catastrophic chain reaction that led to Rich Rodriguez in Ann Arbor, Oklahoma getting embarrassed in the Fiesta Bowl, the Connecticut freaking Huskies being co-Big East champions, LSU winning the least recognized championship since the '99 NBA Finals and Bill Stewart somehow getting hired as a Division I head coach.

The main catalyst in that turnaround?  LeSean McCoy, freshman phenom who would most likely be playing at a program with brighter lights than Heinz Field if not for a gruesome ankle injury suffered during his senior year of high school.  With a true freshman starting at quarterback and stud wide receiver Derek Kinder missing the entire season with a torn ACL, McCoy was more or less responsible for the majority of Pitt's five wins, eclipsing a hundred yards in all of them save the season opener against Eastern Michigan, the sole game he didn't start.  The coming out party was against Michigan State, where he rolled for 172 yards and would have earned the upset in East Lansing if not for some truly atrocious QBing.  The Panthers actually started going into the Wildcat formation popularized by Darren McFadden, realizing that if everyone knew they were going to run McCoy, they might as well drop any pretense of throwing the ball.

After a season's worth of tough losses (Pitt had a bunch of close ones last season, which probably had something to do with Diamond Dave, although I imagine the true freshman QB also played a role), no one gave Pitt a chance going into what was to be a coronation for the Mountaineers.  Instead, it was Pat White getting hurt, Steve Slaton not producing in a big game (again) and McCoy carrying the load to keep the WVU offense off the field, toting the rock a season-high 38 times, scratching out 3.9 yards per carry and doing whatever it took to get his team the victory.

His reward?  A ton of preseason hype, and a potential prime position in next spring's draft, as the year he spent rehabbing his injury and getting his grades in check will qualify him as three years beyond high school when this season concludes.  McCoy recalls being offered by "USC, Miami, Tennessee. … Florida and Penn State" before the compound fracture of his right ankle that ended his senior season only four games in.  After spending a season at Milford Academy in New York, McCoy was visiting Oakland and attending a Panther basketball game against Georgetown.  His method of signing will probably remain in Pitt lore for sometime:  

 "A Pitt fan at the game had a sign listing names of Panthers football recruits, with a check beside each who had committed. McCoy's name was on the sign. 'I checked it, and everybody went crazy,' says McCoy, who signed for real shortly after."

 As far as I can tell from reading about McCoy and watching his highlights, he's almost the perfect back.  He's powerful and able to shed tacklers, but also capable of just avoiding them, with speed to turn on upon finding the open field (we’re talking 4.25 here, people).  Look at his run against Michigan State below, where the offensive line does a good job of getting him a hole and it is good night, Sparty.  He doesn't catch a lot of passes (only 33 last season), but he's capable, grabbing 6 for 83 yards in a loss to South Florida.  He managed to put up the monster numbers he did (1328 yards, 14 TD's) and break separate freshman records held by both Tony Dorsett and the entire Big East conference with little or no help from other skill players on the Panthers, causing the 1976 Heisman Trophy winner to state "This is the first player who has come along who truly reminds me of me."  McCoy was first team All-Big East, the Big East Rookie of the Year (edging out Backyard Brawl counterpart Noel Devine) and a unanimous selection to the Freshman All-American team.

Perhaps the most important asset in McCoy's repertoire is the fact he now realizes he is the feature back in a Dave Wannstedt offense and will have to score if he wants to get off the field.  You might remember Wannstedt as the guy who caused Ricky Williams to retire in his prime, as he called the dreadlocked demon's number 383 times in 2002 and an astounding 392 times in 2003, running behind an offensive line that on its best days could be described as "decent."  (To put that sort of mileage into perspective, only one player – Larry Johnson, who had 416 attempts in 2006 – has had more carries in a season since 2002.)  Perhaps Wanny held off a bit on a freshman running back who was still working out the kinks a couple years after that ankle injury, but no such reservations will be made this season.  McCoy knows that after he did everything in that West Virginia game, his coach will be putting the ball in his hands most of the time, even with some weapons on the outside and some experience at quarterback.  His survival and livelihood (fewer carries equal a lesser chance of injury and more money in the pros) depend on him getting off the field, which depends on him getting the ball into the endzone.   He's literally running for his life every time he gets a carry, and with the talent he has, the skill level plus level of desire sum does not bode well for opponents.

"Shady" was contained a few times last season, unable to get over a hundred in losses to Connecticut, Virginia, Rutgers and South Florida, but there was some serious talent up front on some of those teams (Chris Long, George Selvie) and a 27-7 halftime deficit to UConn that rendered running the ball somewhat useless.  From all reports, McCoy didn't just hang out this offseason, catching up on Gossip Girl and counting his the accolades strewn upon him, so I imagine those sub-100 yard games will be happening infrequently.  Throw in the fact putting eight in the box (or ten, as was the case sometimes last year) will result in Kinder or Oderick Turner hauling in an easy touchdown grab and you have all the makings of a fantastic season, a run at the Doak Walker award and a high draft position.  One potential problem to note for Pitt will be the departure of first round pick Jeff Otah at left tackle and third rounder Mike McGlynn at right, meaning there will need to be some replacements made in the group of gentlemen creating holes for McCoy.

How can the Irish stop McCoy?  No idea, unless the front seven on defense is better than anyone imagines it will be.  Perhaps the best course of action will be to just score enough points that Pitt has to throw, which the Irish will hopefully be doing by the time November rolls around.  While there are a lot of talented players lining up against Notre Dame in 2008 – and with no offense meant to any other fanbases – methinks that McCoy just might be the best of the bunch, meaning that there might not be a gameplan in existence for stopping him.