Michael Pittman's career night shows he's one of college football's top WRs

Michael Pittman tried to briskly sneak up the postgame buffet line outside the locker room and right past reporters Friday night, but that wasn't happening.

While Utah's defense seemingly had an impossible time keeping tabs on the star senior wide receiver, the spotlight was waiting for him after the Trojans' 30-23 win over the No. 10 Utes. He was one of the stories of the night and should start emerging as one of the stories of this college football season.

Not just here locally but nationally.

"The guy's a monster. You can't guard him," USC third-string QB Matt Fink said after passing for 351 yards and 3 touchdowns with a whopping 232 of those yards and 1 of the TDs going to Pittman.

Of Fink's 21 completions after replacing injured starter Kedon Slovis on the opening drive, 10 went to Pittman, who has looked almost unguardable this season. A DB's best hope so far has been having the refs make a questionable judgment call against him.

His 232 receiving yards Friday night rank fifth all-time in USC history and were the most for a Trojan since Marqise Lee set the program single-game record with 345 vs. Arizona in 2012.

In the last 10 quarters, since getting off to a slow connection with Slovis in the first half against Stanford in Week 2, Pittman has 25 catches for 409 yards and 3 TDs. Overall, he's just 10 catches and 321 yards away from matching his career high and the Trojans aren't even through their September slate of games.

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Pittman is the only USC regular with a PFF College season grade of at least 80.0 (right on the nose) -- which is exceptional on their scale -- and according to the PFF advanced data he's reeled in 31 of 38 targets with just 1 drop. He caught 10 of 11 targets against Utah for an elite 90.1 game grade -- the highest by any Trojan in any game this season with regular snaps.

"Michael Pittman is a special player and I've said that since I've been here," offensive coordinator Graham Harrell said Friday night. "Our receivers are as special of a group as I've ever seen, and if they ever get one-on-one opportunities they're going to win them. It doesn't matter which guy's in there. We've got eight of them I feel good about winning one-on-one. Michael Pittman at times wins two-on-one as you saw tonight, so that really helps the cause. He's a special player."

Harrell joked that at times Fink wasn't even reading the defense so much as reading the man -- Pittman -- and taking his chances. And Harrell agreed with the decision-making.

"At times we threw it into double coverage, up to Pitt twice actually and he came down with it. That's just having a special guy," he said. "Sometimes it's not a great decision, he's probably not making decisions … he's making decisions based on a person. … That's pretty fun."

Among his 10 catches Friday night, Pittman turned in gains of 26, 39, a 77-yard touchdown and 42 yards.

That long touchdown -- make that the longest USC passing TD since 2015 -- was lofted down the left side with two DBs in the area on a pivotal third-and-9 early in the third quarter. Pittman caught it cleanly, realized he had room to elude a tackle and took off for the end zone, pushing USC's lead to 21-10 at the time. The 42-yard hookup came on third-and-8 in the fourth quarter and set up the Trojans' final touchdown, an eventual 4-yard Markese Stepp run.

While Pittman couldn't escape the postgame interview altogether, he did manage to deftly avoid talking much about himself all the same.

"I showed that we can execute when our offensive line is blocking good, our quarterback is playing good and our other wideouts are getting open and it just leaves me singled out and it lets me make plays like that. Hats up to Matt, the line, the running backs and everybody else," Pittman said.

He did note his connection with Fink, who was his roommate at one point and with whom he's had countless reps over the years in a variety of settings.

"Matt's just not scared to take shots, so Matt will just look over and be like, 'Fade' and then you just run a fade. He'll like look at me and give me the signal and I know he's probably going to throw that pass," Pittman explained.

And Utah didn't pick up on this?

"I think they did, but they just couldn't stop it," he said plainly.

Indeed not. Harrell seemed to especially appreciate that the Trojans got Utah out of its desired man coverage after the opening couple series.

"They tried to play man coverage, and anytime someone plays man we like our chances," he said. "We got them out of it pretty quickly -- they didn't play much man after the first couple of drives. Understandably so because those guys are special players out there."

As has been said since the spring, USC is most definitely in the conversation for best receiving corps in college football. That's a fun debate with other worthy candidates. But what shouldn't be in question at this point is that Pittman has proven himself among the best individual talents nationally at his position.

Just ask the third-string QB who put up 351 yards passing off the bench Friday night.

"With weapons like that you can't do anything about it," Fink said.