V’Lique Carter was amazed and amazing at the same time.

“Little kids were asking me for autographs,” he said. “They don’t even know me.”

Maybe they know him now as more than a name scrawled on a piece of paper.

Carter, a freshman defensive back from West Palm Beach, Fla., changed to the other side of the ball Saturday and rushed seven times for 137 yards and two touchdowns to help lead Pitt to a 54-45 victory against Duke in front of a crowd of 31,510 at Heinz Field.

In the first game of his collegiate career, he showed rare speed, once splitting two defenders who had an angle on him during a 31-yard touchdown run that cut the Duke lead to 35-32 in the third quarter.

“I was like, ‘OK,’ ” he said of the attention he received before the game. “ I was already feeling it. I (said) I’m going to have a great day.”

Because Pitt trailed by 11 or 10 points on four occasions — even as late as the final four minutes of the third quarter — the victory ranks as one of the most significant in coach Pat Narduzzi’s four seasons.

Pitt (4-4, 3-1) moved to within a half-game of ACC Coastal leader Virginia (6-2, 4-1). The teams meet Friday night in Charlottesville, Va.

“I don’t care,” said Narduzzi of his team’s place in the conference standings entering the final four games of the season. “We’re 1-0 in the ACC (Saturday). (Sunday), we’ll go back to work at about 7 a.m., and work on Virginia in a short week and try to be 1-0 again.”

Said senior linebacker Seun Idowu: “That placement doesn’t affect you too much if you lose the next game.”

“We’ll go back to work,” Narduzzi said. “We have a lot of work to do.”

He was talking about his defense that allowed Duke (5-3, 1-3) 619 total yards and six touchdowns (but only a field goal in the decisive fourth quarter).

“A bad day to play defense,” he said without mentioning his offense collected 634 yards, including the second-most rushing total in school history (484). “I don’t know if anybody plays defense anymore. Disappointed in the way our defense played, but we’ve been there before.

“You get measured on where you are this Saturday, and it wasn’t very good. I just hope they’re saving it for next week.”

He did give credit to his defense for, finally, forcing two punts and a field-goal attempt in the fourth quarter while Pitt was making a comeback.

“They had to bow up and make some plays,” Narduzzi said. “Give credit to the defensive coaches, at least in the fourth quarter of adjusting it out.”

The game, though, was about offense. Carter wasn’t even his team’s leading rusher. That honor belonged to senior running back Qadree Ollison, who rushed for 149 yards and a touchdown on 18 carries.

Quarterback Kenny Pickett ran 30 yards for the game’s first touchdown but only completed four passes before the winning drive in the fourth quarter. Overall, he finished 8 of 18 for 150 yards, but he was 3 for 3 with the score tied and the clock running down, hitting Darrin Hall for a 24-yard screen, Rafael Arajuo-Lopes for 17 yards and Maurice Ffrench for the 25-yard winner with five seconds left.

It was Ffrench’s second touchdown reception of the game after he caught a 50-yarder in the first half.

The final shot into the end zone was a gamble for Pitt. Alex Kessman had hit field goals from 27, 54 and 48 yards and told Narduzzi before the game he was prepared to kick the winner.

“(Duke) came with all-out pressure,” Pickett said. “(It was) a route Maurice and I had worked countless amount of hours on since last season.

“I knew he would be in that area. I had to throw it before I wanted to, but that’s football.”

It was a moment for Pitt’s struggling passing game to grow up a little.

“Growing for everybody and (the blockers) up front,” said Pickett, who was sacked once. “Once it left my hand, I had a really good feeling (Ffrench) was going to come down with it.”

Carter learned a valuable lesson, too.

He was caught from behind at the end of a 62-yard run in the second quarter, but he accepted the blame. Sheepishly, he admitted he peeked at the scoreboard in the north end zone, lost focus and was tackled at the Duke 7. Eventually, Pitt was forced to settle for a field goal.

“I didn’t get tripped up,” he said. “I was looking at myself running, and it slowed me down. Oh, man, stupid.”

Narduzzi said he was saving Carter for the conference games. He even had him change his jersey from No. 21 to No. 19 after pregame warmups to support the subterfuge.

But if the freshman remains productive, the coach will have no qualms about burning Carter’s redshirt season, which would happen if he plays in the final four regular-season games.

“If he keeps doing that, he’ll be playing a fifth, too, maybe a sixth,” Narduzzi said.

That “sixth” would be the ACC championship game Dec. 1 in Charlotte.

Jerry DiPaola is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jerry at jdipaola@tribweb.com or via Twitter @JDiPaola_Trib.

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