NOTRE DAME, Ind.

The halftime joke in the Notre Dame Stadium press box was a sick one. It went like this: Although 30 minutes remained, with Pitt down by 14 points the game might as well be over. No way that anemic offense could score two touchdowns to tie the score let alone additional points to win it.

The joke was on the jokesters.

The team that embarrassed itself seven days earlier in a humiliating loss to Rutgers, redeemed itself yesterday on all fronts: offense, defense, special teams, heart, fortitude.

All but done, they rallied superbly, outscoring the Irish by 14 points in the second half and then outlasting them in four overtimes -- with a magnificent defensive performance and field goal after field goal from Conor Lee -- to win, 36-33.

"I can't describe the heart that our football team has," Pitt coach Dave Wannstedt said. "We've come back before but never on the road against a quality football team like Notre Dame.

"We never folded. No one came unglued."

There were heroes galore for the Panthers, but none stood taller than LeSean McCoy, an absolutely brilliant running back who carried 32 times for 169 yards. He added 23 yards on receptions, including a magnificent 16-yarder that kept Pitt alive in the third overtime.

"A guy like that, when you keep dishing it to him, sooner or later he's going to make something happen," Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said.

"He's got a lot of ability. He really stepped it up in the second half."

Heroics are expected from McCoy, who will someday, perhaps next year, be playing in the NFL. That is not the case with backup quarterback Pat Bostick, who started in place of injured Bill Stull. Bostick was tentative and awful in the first half, throwing six times for 24 yards and an interception that led to a Notre Dame touchdown. It was mindful of his play a week before he replaced Stull late in the game.

But Bostick didn't back down from the challenge. He rose to it. He completed 11 of 21 for 140 yards in the second half along with two interceptions that were not particularly harmful. Sure, McCoy is the Panthers' biggest contributor, but Bostick continually came up with important plays as he led the Panthers on three long scoring drives in the second half.

Wannstedt admitted he and offensive coordinator Matt Cavanaugh were playing it too cautious with Bostick in the first half.

"It's very frustrating when you're trying to calls plays based on what a quarterback can and can't do," he said. "In the second half we dialed up the play and said we have to execute."

Based on his recent history, Bostick shouldn't have been ready for the second half. But he was more than so.

On the first possession, when the Panthers implicitly told the Irish they were not about to give up on this game, on a fourth-and-1 from the Notre Dame 41, Bostick threw to T.J Porter, who spun out of a tackle and went for 37 yards to the 4, from where LaRod Stephens-Howling scored a play later.

On a 15-play, 70-yard drive that ended early in the fourth quarter, Bostick passed 14 yards to Stephens-Howling on a second-and-18 and followed that up with a 6-yard first-down pass to Derek Kinder.

On the tying drive, Bostick and Porter combined on a 37-yard pass play on second-and-9 from the Pitt 31. Bostick threw 6 yards on a fade pattern to Jonathan Baldwin for the score.

"I made some mistakes out there," said Bostick, a sophomore. "But we made enough plays to win. It was a total team effort and couldn't have come at a better time.

"The picks weren't killers, except for the one at the end of the half. When you throw picks, it's not about you. You can't say, 'Woe is me.'

It's all about the next drive."

The win, which raised Pitt's record to 6-2, resurrects this down-and-up-and-down-and-up season and should be a confidence-builder for the games immediately ahead -- Louisville, Cincinnati, West Virginia and Connecticut. The impossible-to-predict Panthers, who win when they're expected to lose and lose when they're expected to win, remain in control of their fate. If they win out, they could be going to a major bowl game.

There was more good news after the game. Wannstedt announced Stull is healthy and will start against Louisville Saturday at Heinz Field.

He's the guy Pitt needs at quarterback to live up to its hopes.

"This is Bill's team,'' Bostick said.

That it is, but it was nice to learn yesterday on the most hallowed ground in college football that the Panthers have another quarterback who can get the job done.