MJ Devonshire seemingly has a knack for coming up with big plays and he came through with another game-changing sequence in Pitt’s 38-21 upset win over No. 14 Louisville on Saturday night.

Pitt grabbed its first lead of the game with a little over three minutes to go in the third quarter, but Louisville looked poised to respond quickly. The Cardinals marched 55 yards all the way down to the Pitt 20-yard line, but Louisville quarterback Jack Plummer’s pass on 2nd and 10 sailed on him and Devonshire was there for the interception.

The speedy Devonshire showed no hesitation once the ball landed in his hands and he bolted 86 yards to the end zone to increase Pitt’s lead to 31-21. That play gave Pitt enough breathing room to dispatch Louisville and snap a four-game losing streak in the process.

“You know, Devonshire was outstanding,” Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi said of his senior cornerback. “We had a couple holding or PIs, whatever, back there, but M.J. was outstanding. That pick six, to do that in front of Tony Dorsett and Darrelle Revis up there, that's big time.”

Pitt welcomed back Revis, a recent inductee to the NFL Hall of Fame, for a ceremony to commemorate the achievement during the game. The former Pitt great was on-hand to see Devonshire’s big play. Like Revis, Devonshire is a cornerback playing at Pitt who hails from the storied Aliquippa High School program. Devonshire has always looked up to Revis and he got to make a big-time play in front of his mentor.

“I always get really nervous when he comes around, especially when I have to play,” Devonshire said. “Last time I played in front of him was the ACC Championship and one game in high school. We were playing Hopewell in high school and I was nervous like we were going to lose and I knew we were going to win by a million. But when he comes around its like, ‘Man, this is my idol.”

Revis was a lockdown corner during his time at Pitt. He recorded eight interceptions in his career with the Panthers with two going for touchdowns. Following Devonshire’s play on Saturday, he now has three pick-sixes in his Pitt career, one more than his idol.

“Just being around that guy and knowing how humble he is and just seeing the path he took and being the guy who walked the same streets I walked,” Devonshire said of Revis. “Being from Aliquippa he did the same exact thing walked through Aliquippa High School and that’s motivating in itself and seeing that was amazing today.”

Devonshire’s pick-six against West Virginia last season will go down as one of the more memorable plays in Pitt history. He also opened a game against Virginia last year with a touchdown. Even dating back to 2021, he had a game-ending interception in Pitt’s overtime win over North Carolina.

Devonshire just seems to find himself making big plays and he entered this season with high expectations for himself, but the season on a personal level and also team-wide has not gone as planned for the Aliquippa native.

“Everybody has to face adversity at some point in your life and Coach (Bob) Junko says it best, ‘Never get too high, never get too low’ and maybe through the offseason I got too high,” Devonshire admitted about falling for too much preseason hype.

The entire Pitt defense buckled down in the face of adversity Saturday. The Panthers were up against it coming into this game with four straight losses, but they held a potent Louisville offense scoreless after halftime. Pitt's defense recorded four sacks for the game, generated three turnovers, and held the Cardinals to 0-of-4 on fourth down attempts.

Devonshire took advantage of the play presented in front of him on Saturday, which was actually Revis’ message to the team prior to the game, and it was clearly something that resonated with Pitt's big play cornerback.

“Darrelle spoke about it today, you only get so many opportunities and sometimes you’ll be blind to it and miss it, but if your eyes are open and you’re expecting it, you take advantage of those opportunities,” he said of the pregame talk.

Devonshire took advantage of his opportunity on Saturday and in turn, so did the entire Pitt team to pull off an upset win.