The Panthers certainly didn’t expect all this, not with 18 starters back from the first team to win at Notre Dame in 19 seasons and most of its famous alumni — Tony Dorsett, Dan Marino, Mike Ditka — gathered to celebrate Wannstedt’s return as head coach.

With a Top 25 ranking, a schedule filled with winnable games and polished playmaker Tyler Palko at quarterback, Pitt expected a big start to an excellent season. Instead, it was a huge letdown, with a sold-out Heinz Field half-empty before the end of the third quarter.

Wannstedt, who replaced Walt Harris following five consecutive bowl seasons, is the first Pitt coach to lose his debut since Mike Gottfried’s team lost to Maryland 13-10 in 1986. The most recent comparable loss by a debuting Pitt coach was Carl DePasqua’s 42-8 defeat to UCLA in 1969.

“I was disappointed how our guys responded, and that’s my responsibility,” Wannstedt said. “We didn’t respond the way you need to come back and win the game.”

For Weis, the game was strikingly familiar to his last visit to Heinz Field nine months ago, when after losing to the Steelers convincingly during the season, his Patriots offense manhandled Pittsburgh’s defense in a 41-27 win that wasn’t that close.

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This one wasn’t either, even though Pitt opened early leads of 7-0 and 10-7 in probably the Panthers’ most awaited and ballyhooed season opener since new coach Foge Fazio’s 1982 team, led by Marino, edged North Carolina 7-6 in their opener.

Palko (17-of-30, 181 yards, one TD, one interception) didn’t play nearly as well as he did in becoming the first player to throw five touchdown passes against Notre Dame, partly because the Irish had the ball so often and scored most of the time they did.

“We had a lot of expectations, so it was disappointing,” Palko said. “We just got our tails kicked. Now, we can face it one of two ways — we can run away and hide or face it like a man.”

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Down 35-13 at the half, the Panthers didn’t even get the ball until midway through the third quarter following a 20-play Irish drive that ended with Rashon Powers-Neal’s third scoring run of the night, none longer than 9 yards. The Irish overcame a third-and-25 during the drive.

Notre Dame beat Pitt for the 12th time in 14 meetings and the sixth time in their last seven games in Pittsburgh. The Irish also were underdogs when they won there two years ago.