Coleman on the game-winner: 'I took it'

Pitt needed a big play from its defense, and when Therran Coleman lined up across from Syracuse slot receiver Nykeim Johnson on the Orange’s first snap of overtime, he thought he might have a chance to make one.

“I could tell from how the receiver’s face was. He was real intense. I knew something was up,” Coleman said after the game.

What was up was that Johnson was Eric Dungey’s target on a would-be game-tying pass. Pitt had scored a touchdown on the first possession of overtime, giving the Panthers a 44-37 advantage after a long and wild afternoon at Heinz Field.

Now Syracuse was at the 25 for its overtime possession and Coleman was lined up as a nickel back. That put him right across the line from Johnson, who had two catches for 26 yards during regulation.

After Coleman saw some intensity in Johnson’s face, sophomore cornerback Jason Pinnock, who was lined up outside, called out the route to tip Coleman on what to watch. When the ball was snapped, Dungey ran a sprint-out with two lead blockers and threw to Johnson in the end zone.

But the Syracuse receiver wasn’t the only one to get his hands on the ball.

“Once the play started going, I felt the receiver sprinting faster. So I turned my head and it was game.”

It was “game” because Coleman also got his hands on the ball.

“We both caught it. I took it.”

Coleman wrested the ball from Johnson, held onto it to the ground and completed the interception to win the game.

“He was too little,” Coleman (6’2” 200) said of Johnson (5’8” 167).

“Therran’s a beast,” redshirt senior middle linebacker Quintin Wirginis. “He’s not huge, but in the weight room, he’s a beast. He’s a monster.”

The interception came despite Coleman not playing a majority of the 80 defensive snaps in the game. He came into Saturday as the reserve nickel back behind sophomore Damarri Mathis, who started and played into the third quarter before cramps caused him to sit out two drives.

Coleman made his first appearance on Syracuse’s final drive of the third quarter and played 13 snaps spread over two possessions in regulation. The lone play in overtime was his 14th defensive snap of the game - the most snaps he has played in a game this season since the opener against Albany, when he logged 16.

Last week at Central Florida, he played 12 snaps and forced a fumble that the Knights recovered. This week he finished the play on the turnover.

“I just try to go out and make every play I can,” he said Saturday.