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If you spend any time on Twitter, you no doubt have seen people posting certain Pitt players wearing uniform numbers that correspond with the number of days left until the football season kicks off. Jim did it last year and this year, Pat Narduzzi has been doing it.
I know we have a lot of younger readers here and also some folks that may not have spent their entire lives following Pitt sports. For that reason, I thought it would be cool to not only do the countdown here, but also give a brief writeup on the player to potentially help fans connect a little more with some of the all-time greats.
Quick disclaimer - this isn't necessarily about picking the best player for each number. Not only is that disputable in many instances, but it's not really the point of the exercise. So don't be offended if your favorite player doesn't make the list here. I'll probably mirror Narduzzi's list for the most part but may go off the board in a few instances.
These will also be brief, folks. It's the offseason and we all use this time to wind down a bit. These won't be theses or anything, but we'll cobble together a few facts for each guy.
Finally, feel free to add on to a player's accomplishments in the comments section. Some I'll leave out due to space/time and some I may not even know about. But this will be a good learning exercise for all of us.
Continuing our countdown today is running back Kevan Barlow.
Barlow didn't have a monster season at Pitt but continued to develop and by the time he left, turned into an NFL-ready back. After playing sparingly in 1997, he had 533 rushing yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore in 1998. In 1999, Barlow had 630 yards with eight touchdowns and in his senior season, had his best year yet with 1,053 yards and eight touchdowns.
Barlow drew the attention of NFL scouts and was a third round NFL Draft pick of the San Francisco 49ers. His best year arguably came in 2003 when he finished with 1,024 yards and six rushing touchdowns. He started for the team in the next two seasons before playing a year with the New York Jets to wind up a six-year pro career.
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