If there was any team against which Ryan Switzer would tie an ACC record, Pittsburgh was perfect.
Switzer and the Panthers? His feelings for them go way back - specifically to 2007, when Switzer was growing up in Charleston and watched Pitt upset West Virginia and knock the Mountaineers out of the BCS title game.
"I think I cried for two weeks straight," Switzer said to a GoHeels TV reporter after his fourth game - and fourth win - against the Panthers as a North Carolina wide receiver. "And I was an older kid, and I shouldn't have been crying."
The tears have rolled down Pitt's face since Switzer became a Tar Heel. His record against Pitt is spotless, his performances against the Panthers utterly dominant. In four games, he has caught 26 passes for 423 yards and three touchdowns. Add to that the two punts he returned for touchdowns versus Pitt as a freshman.
(He nearly had another punt return for a touchdown last Saturday, but it was called back on a penalty. If good, it would have been his eighth and tied the NCAA record. "That's four," Switzer said of punt return touchdowns that have been called back.)
The George Washington High graduate did get to tie a conference record with his 16 catches, 208 yards and touchdown last week versus Pitt. His reception total marked the ninth time an ACC player has caught 16 passes in a game.
No way would the Panthers ever discount Switzer's abilities. Yet he and his fellow UNC wide receivers didn't believe they were receiving the respect they've earned. The unit made its feelings known in the pregame warmups versus Pitt. Switzer, Mack Hollins and Bug Howard all donned bathrobes. The country, they felt, was sleeping on them.
No one should be sleeping on Switzer after that Pitt game. One rival coach definitely isn't. Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who hosts the Tar Heels on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium, gushed over Switzer's abilities in his weekly press conference.
"He can stick his foot into the ground, he knows how to set you up and change speeds," Fisher said. "He knows where the hole is going to be. He knows where he's trying to get to. He can stop and stick his foot and be really fast."
Fisher cemented his respect for Switzer with his next statement. Rather than try to beat him, Fisher wanted Switzer to join him in Tallahassee.
"We recruited him," Fisher said. "We tried to recruit him. He's a daggum hillbilly from West Virginia. He wouldn't come. He was a good player, though."
Switzer, who won the Kennedy Award twice (2011, '12) as West Virginia's top high school player, is on his way to becoming one of the most prolific receivers in UNC history. On top of the NCAA punt-return touchdown record in his sights, he is on pace to finish the season with 107 catches, 1,394 yards and six touchdowns. That would break Tar Heels single-season records for receptions (Dwight Jones holds the record with 85 in 2011) and receiving yards (Hakeem Nicks holds the record with 1,222 yards in 2008).
If the pace holds up, he would finish his career with 255 receptions and 3,189 receiving yards. The school records are 205 catches by Quinshad Davis and 2,840 yards by Nicks. Switzer's six-touchdown pace would give him 19 for his career, which would tie him with Octavus Barnes for third all-time. He's already tied with two other Tar Heels for sixth all-time in touchdown catches with 15.
Rather than keep his nose stuck in the UNC history books to chart his climb up those rankings, Switzer is focused on the practice field and the film room. He knows there is more to his game than he's already achieved.
"I've got room for improvement," he said after the Pitt game. "My ceiling has not been reached. That's the exciting thing for me, that I can continue to grow as a player and I can continue to grow as a person."
If that growth continues, Switzer can keep the bathrobe in the closet. No one will be sleeping on him again. Opponents will more likely be guzzling down coffee, in order to walk into those games with eyes wide open.
Contact Derek Redd at 304-348-1712 or derek.redd@wvgazettemail.com. Follow him on Twitter @derekredd.