PITTSBURGH — Paul Chryst accepted the game ball celebrating his first victory at Pitt — a stunning and decisive 35-17 win over then-No. 13 Virginia Tech on Saturday — and promptly handed it to equipment manager Tim Enright.

Two days later, Chryst still doesn’t know where it is. And to be honest, he doesn’t really care.

While the first-year coach appreciated the gesture from his players, he was hardly in the mood to reflect.

“There are a lot of people that did a lot more than I did in that game,” Chryst said.

It’s why Chryst also offered a game ball to director of football relations Bob Junko, one of the few fixtures in a program that’s seen more change in the last two years than most see in two decades.

The magnanimous move wasn’t lost on the Panthers.

“Coach Junko has been here through thick and thin,” wide receiver Mike Shanahan said. “When (Chryst gave him the ball), guys erupted.”

A few moments later, Chryst and his team repeated a chant that Junko has tried to make part of the Pitt lexicon.

“Don’t get too high, don’t get too low, just keep sawing that wood,” they roared.

It was a scene of elation and relief. After a pair of dismal losses to Youngstown State and Cincinnati to open the Chryst Era, Pitt responded by thumping the Hokies all the way out of the polls.

“I never thought we lost ourselves or what we were trying to do and accomplish,” Shanahan said. “I thought this game was proof of that and of all the hard work and we just kept grinding at it and it finally showed up on the field.”

Chryst stressed the victory, no matter how sweet, means little if Pitt can’t build off it.

The Panthers (1-2) host Gardner-Webb (0-3) on Saturday. The Runnin’ Bulldogs, a Football Championship Subdivision program, were a last-second addition to the schedule when West Virginia and TCU headed for the Big 12 over the summer.

While it looks like a walkover, the Panthers have already lost to an FCS program this season when Youngstown State drubbed them in the season opener on Sept. 1. Besides, the last time Pitt beat a ranked opponent — a 44-17 whipping over 16th-ranked South Florida last fall — it responded by getting crushed at Rutgers a week later.

The Panthers insist there will be no letdown this time. Maybe it’s because of how they beat the Hokies. This wasn’t a handful of gimmick plays, it was smashmouth, up-the-gut, right-at-you football that looked an awful lot like the games Chryst used to call while serving as offensive coordinator at Wisconsin.

Senior running back Ray Graham ran for 94 yards and scored three total touchdowns. Freshman Rushel Shell had 157 yards on 23 carries. Chryst would often alternate between the two on each series, with Shell doing the bulk of the work on a 15-play, 88-yard drive in the fourth quarter to seal it.

“We talked about just going out there and believing in each other and playing our game and not letting the other team control how we played,” Shell said.