#3 Days Until Pitt Football: Tyler Palko

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 quarterback Tyler Palko.

Palko became a cult hero of sorts for his play with the Panthers. After redshirting and playing sparingly in 2002 and 2003, Palko went on to start for three consecutive seasons. During that time, he put up massive numbers, throwing for more than 8,300 yards and 66 touchdowns. He twice led the Big East in passing touchdowns and in his final year in 2006, was fourth in the NCAA in completion percentage (68%) and passer rating (163.2%). He twice made the All-Big East Second Team.

Palko went undrafted, but quickly found a home in the NFL before carving out a decent career, playing five parts of seasons with the New Orleans Saints, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Kansas City Chiefs. He was mostly a backup, but started a few games with the Chiefs in 2011.

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