Last home game, and a very kind piece lauding the Senior class. The piece manages to name each one of the seniors and recognize their contributions from Safety Tez Morris starting 44 of 47 games in his career to the essentially unknowns like linebackers Doug Roseberry and Keith Malley who play mainly on special teams.

The senior class — at least the fifth-year seniors — has been around for some of the highest of highs and lowest of lows in recent Pitt history. Their first season, in 2001, the Panthers began 1-5 and were on the brink of a losing season before they rebounded to win their final five games and earn a berth in the Tangerine Bowl.

In 2003, the Panthers began the season ranked in the top 15 but were upset by Toledo early and went on to have a disappointing season for a lot of reasons. But the team rebounded last year and had a surprising season, as Pitt won the Big East Conference championship and earned a berth in the BCS.

One thing that Horne and the rest of the seniors are well aware of is the fact that the Panthers have not missed a bowl game in the past four seasons and keeping that streak alive is a high priority.

“We certainly don’t want to be the class that had that streak broken,” Horne said.

Hopefully they won’t.