The Pitt sideline at Acrisure Stadium was teeming with recruits and recruiters before the West Virginia-Pitt game Thursday night. One guy — an unofficial Pitt recruiter — stood out among the crowd.

Tony Dorsett, who is Pitt’s only Heisman Trophy winner, was engaged in an animated conversation with Austintown Fitch (Ohio) High School defensive end Brian Robinson, a four-star junior prospect.

Dorsett, one of several former Pitt players attending the West Virginia-Pitt game, said he told Robinson, “You come here, your family can come see you play.”

Was Robinson in awe while standing in the presence of a Heisman Trophy and Super Bowl winner and national champion?

“Yeah, just a little bit,” Dorsett said. “He was holding himself together.”

The Backyard Brawl carries many memories for Dorsett, who was 3-1 against the Mountaineers during his time at Pitt.

What does he remember?

“Fights,” he said.

“You were guaranteed to see at least four or five fights in the stands. The fans got into it sometimes, I thought, more than the players.”

He said the West Virginia fans brought their own brand of spirit to the game when Pitt visited Morgantown.

“They were good fans for the Mountaineers,” Dorsett said. “The talked, and they screamed and they cursed our coaches out. They did all kind of things to try to interrupt our cadence offensively.”

On the national stage

Pitt ventured onto the ESPN stage Thursday night not actively seeking national recognition but aware that victories against West Virginia and Tennessee next week could vault the No. 17 Panthers toward a top-10 ranking.

Rece Davis, part of ESPN’s “GameDay” crew that handled pregame analysis, understands respect can be a difficult prize to secure.

“I don’t think that they get quite the credit that they deserve and that they’ve earned,” Davis said while speaking to reporters before the game. “And one of the ways they can rectify that is to build on a championship season by pursuing another one.”

Davis said Pitt shouldn’t need to repeat as ACC champion to garner that respect, but early-season victories wouldn’t hurt. A big first step would be avoiding what he labeled “the faceplants that have come along with the sort of inexplicable upsets that have plagued them from time to time.”

“If they win this (WVU) game — big stage, big rivalry, huge crowd — go on to perhaps play in the ACC championship game again, or certainly be right there on the cusp of it to play a solid round of football, I think then you can see the program take the next step.”

He said the strides taken under coach Pat Narduzzi in the past year have earned Pitt more credit “than many non-Pittsburgh fans or fans outside the immediate ACC footprint would give them.”

CFP Panthers?

ESPN’s Desmond Howard, who won the 1991 Heisman Trophy and now is one of college football’s most visible analysts, predicted before Thursday’s game that Pitt has what it takes to reach the four-team College Football Playoff.

“I always respected Narduzzi’s program because I thought his kids, they breathed like that tough mentality,” he said before the game. “They’re physical (and) it’s kind of like a little old school at the line of scrimmage in the trenches, so I always respected that.

“They got like a monster defensive front, too, which should give teams problems. If you win the conference championship, I think that you have a good chance of making it to the (CFP).”

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