“Everything was just perfect tonight,” Vincent Davis said with a smile to open his postgame press conference. Hard to argue with that statement. The sophomore back had a career-high 247 rushing yards on 25 carries in Pitt’s 34-20 win over Georgia Tech in Atlanta on Thursday night.

It was the first 100-yard rushing output by a Pitt running back all season, and the first 200-plus yard game by a Pitt player since Qadree Ollison rushed for 235 yards against Virginia Tech back in 2018.

It was a surprise performance, as Pitt had struggled to run the ball throughout most of the 2020 season. The Panthers as a team were averaging 100.2 rushing yards per game entering Thursday’s contest, but exploded for 317 yards on the ground with Davis leading the charge.

“Vince Davis had a heckuva day, he ran like a big dog,” Pat Narduzzi said following his team’s victory. “For a little guy that guy’s got a lot of power, lot of quickness.”

Davis got it going early with a 74-yard run on Pitt’s first play from scrimmage and that helped set the tone for the offense.

“It was great, felt very dominant up front and it was a fun game,” senior center Jimmy Morrissey said. “Whenever you can rush for that many yards, it’s always a good time.”

Davis really got stronger as the game progressed. He broke loose for a 32-yard run in the second quarter. The sophomore also had runs of 21, 12, 12, and 38 in the second half, the latter of which went for a touchdown to set the final score with two minutes to play.

The Panthers possessed the ball for 11 minutes in the final quarter of the game and had two 70-plus yard drives to keep the game away from the Yellow Jackets. On Pitt’s final offensive drive alone, Davis rushed it seven times for 69 yards, including the long run to seal the game.

“We just wanted to run the clock down as much as we could, but I think I should have slid on the one-yard line a little bit, but hey I got that touchdown,” Davis said with a laugh about his final run of the evening.

2020 has been a struggle for Davis and the entire running game as a whole, but he found a rhythm on Thursday and the offensive line controlled the line of scrimmage all night.

“Vince Davis, pound for pound, that guy is one of the toughest guys on our football team,” Narduzzi said. “He gets tossed around sometimes and he just keeps swinging.”

Davis said he estimates this is the first 200-yard game of his life and it’s the second time he’s found success against a Georgia Tech defense in his young career. In the 2019 meeting, a 20-10 Pitt win, he broke loose for a 61-yard touchdown run. An much like on Thursday, that 2019 game came down to Pitt icing the clock with the ground game.

“We knew what type of day it was going to be,” Davis said. “We felt like it was going to be another game like last year.”