TEMPE, Ariz. - Utah's unbelievable scoring machine made a star of Alex Smith. Tyler Palko understands and accepts that.

But if Pittsburgh is going to upset the heavily favored, unbeaten Utes in the Fiesta Bowl Saturday night, the Panthers' sophomore quarterback will have to steal at least some of the spotlight and show that the Big East champs are no offensive slouches.

"I think he has the upper hand," Palko said of Smith. "I wasn't in New York sitting at the Heisman Trophy thing."

Maybe he will someday.

Palko, the son of a high school coach, has been going to football practice as long as he can remember.

"We were just too poor as a family when I was growing up to afford a baby sitter or day care," he said, "so I just went with my dad to football practice. I was fortunate to be around a lot of great men through football who really shaped my life the way it was supposed to be."

He was The Associated Press high school player of the year in Pennsylvania and a prize recruit for Pitt coach Walt Harris. But when Palko finally earned the starting job this season, his first performance was anything but impressive - 6-for-19 for 49 yards against Ohio.

"A lot of people during the opener wanted to bench him," Harris said. "But this young man is probably the most dedicated quarterback that I've had the opportunity to be with."

Palko wasn't the only young player struggling for the Panthers. Only one returning starter was in the lineup when the season began, and the results weren't pretty. Pittsburgh needed overtime to beat NCAA Division I-AA Furman, then lost at Connecticut to fall to 2-2.

But a victory over Boston College followed, and the Panthers (8-3) won six of their last seven to earn a share of the Big East title. In the last five games, Palko - a junior academically - completed just under 60 percent of his passes for 1,570 yards and 16 touchdowns, with just two interceptions.

"That's pretty impressive for a young kid," Harris said, "and he's going to only get better."

In the regular-season finale at South Florida, a game Pitt had to win to earn a Bowl Championship Series invitation, Palko completed 19 of 28 passes for 411 yards and five scores. The tough times made the Panthers grow, Palko said.

"We had to go through some growing pains, and that's not such a bad thing sometimes," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I don't want to lose, but sometimes when you lose, it's the greatest teacher."

That's one lesson the Utes can do without.

Smith and his teammates became the first team from outside the six BCS conferences to force its way into one of the four BCS bowls. Utah is 11-0, and coach Urban Meyer wants a crowning victory on Saturday before he moves on to Florida. Harris, too, is leaving, taking over at Stanford after leading Pittsburgh to six bowl games in eight seasons.

Defensive coordinator Kyle Whittingham will take over at Utah. Dave Wannstedt, who resigned as coach of the Miami Dolphins, will be the new coach at Pitt.

Pittsburgh finished only 21st in the BCS rankings. Utah was sixth. That leads to a belief that the system didn't work and that the Utes deserve a better foe.

Palko won't go into the game with a chip on his shoulder, though.

"If you have time to worry about those things, you're not spending enough time on football," he said. "This is a reward for a football team that's done a great job of battling a lot of ups and downs. This is supposed to be a fun time, and we're not going to let people ruin it for us."

The Utes may have wanted an opponent with a better record, but just being in the Fiesta Bowl is a gigantic achievement for a program on the outside of college football's big-time.

"This has been pretty dreamlike," Smith said. "This has been a goal of ours since January, and to finally reach it, it's pretty surreal. I'm just trying to take it all in and not let it go by too fast."