Mason Heintschel made program history Saturday, racking up four touchdown passes — the most ever in a single game for a Pitt freshman — in the Panthers’ 48-7 blowout victory over Boston College at Acrisure Stadium.
Heintschel completed 30 of 41 passes for 323 yards and four touchdowns in his first start of the season after taking over for Eli Holstein.
Holstein was the Panthers starter last season and broke the freshman passing record against Youngstown State with 381 yards and three touchdown passes.
But after Holstein’s recent struggles, Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi made the change and called on Heintschel, a three-star true freshman from Oregon, Ohio.
Pitt has a rich quarterback history, including several standouts who notched starts as freshman in Dan Marino, Kenny Pickett, Alex Van Pelt and Holstein. Heintschel put his name in with one of the best freshman performances of all time.
“I’m just glad to walk into here and get a dub,” Heintschel said. “It’s important for me that we win games here. I’m just doing anything that I can, and just doing my job to help us win those games is important for me.”
Narduzzi made the change at quarterback after second-half struggles in back-to-back games from Holstein.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for me, and I’m so blessed to be in this position to just be able to lead this team any way that I can,” Heintschel said.
Narduzzi said he sees a lot of Pickett in Heintschel. Narduzzi recalled Pickett’s start against No. 2-ranked Miami in the final game of Pickett’s freshman season.
“We weaned Kenny into it,” Narduzzi said. “I remember going down to Virginia Tech and put Kenny in the fourth quarter and mounted a comeback little by little. Mason works at it. He’s a worker. He’s prepared.”
Heintschel said that one player he looked up to was Marcus Mariota. One thing Pickett and Mariota have in common is their running ability as well as their ability to escape in the pocket and throw on the run. He showed that he was prepared for the moment and took it all in and stayed grounded.
“I have faith in my preparation throughout the past couple days,” Heintschel said. “My teammates, I just trust them to be able to help them go and go make a play.”
“He prepared his butt off,” Narduzzi added. “He was in the office at eight o’clock on Monday, and I think he was there till 6:30.”
Johnson was his leading target, hauling in nine passes for 115 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s such a playmaker to where it just makes my job so much easier,” Heintschel said of Johnson. “Just to be able to get him the ball in space and let him make plays, that’s what this offense is all about.”
All four of Heintschel’s touchdown passes went to different receivers — Justin Holmes for 14 yards, Johnson for 12, Deuce Spann for 10 and Zion Fowler-El for 18.
“He’s got a lot of trust in the receivers,” Narduzzi said of Heintschel. “He put the ball where it needed to be. He was very accurate. His passes gave us opportunities and gave our guys opportunities to make plays after the catch.”
Twelve different Panthers caught the ball and all six touchdowns featured different players.
“I’m confident in our guys on the field that we’re going to get it done,” Heintschel said. “Our offensive line up front, they did a heck of a job today. Our receivers, we got that ball in space and just went and made plays. It makes my job so much easier.”
Johnson added: “My expectations were very high just because in the spring game, Mason and I went off. Heintschel … The confidence he has, I just knew he was going to pop off.”
Pitt also dominated time of possession, controlling the ball for 40 minutes. That resulted in a rested Pitt defense that held the Eagles running attack to 27 yards. Kyle Louis led the defense with 10 total tackles and a forced fumble and recovery. He said the offense definitely helped the defense.
“The offense was controlling the game,” Louis said. “That was definitely a big change in stamina. That definitely helped us out.”
Photos by Mike Longo Jr.
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