Pitt hopeful QB carousel ends with big second year from Mason Heintschel
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Continuity has been hard for the Pitt Panthers to find at quarterback since Kenny Pickett led the program to its first ACC title in 2021. They hope they’ve finally found some in Mason Heintschel.
A year ago, fans were saying the same thing about Eli Holstein, the Alabama transfer who was entering his second year as the program’s starter after a revolving door had preceded him. Then things went sideways quickly.
Holstein threw a pair of interceptions and was pulled from a 34-27 loss to Louisville on Sept. 27. This came one week after a disastrous loss in the Backyard Brawl rivalry game against West Virginia, in which the Panthers blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to lose in overtime.
Heintschel, a freshman, was installed as the surprise starter the following week against Boston College and never looked back. He won his next five starts and led an upset of College Football Playoff hopeful Georgia Tech on the road in November. The only regular season blemishes were losses to eventual national runner up Miami and Notre Dame, which missed the playoff by a single spot.
For the season, Heintschel completed 63.6% of his passes for 2,354 yards and 16 touchdowns against eight interceptions in nine games. Now, he’s looking to avoid the proverbial sophomore jinx and guide his team to better than its 8-5 finish in 2025.
"Mason's made major strides," coach Pat Narduzzi told reporters at his opening news conference for training camp Aug. 5. "Where we were last year at this time, Mason was third, fourth — I mean, even when he took over at quarterback, he wasn't the backup at that time. That was just a decision we made… It's night and day. He was on fire today, just completing balls and making throws and being accurate."
Pitt has been picked to finish in the ACC’s messy middle, as usual. The conference media poll had the Panthers ninth among the league’s 17 teams.
The schedule shapes up favorably, though. No. 7 Miami is Pitt’s only opponent ranked in the preseason LBM Coaches Poll, opening a path for the Panthers to stay in the mix late in the season as they have in each of the last two years. They started the 2024 season 7-0 amid Holstein’s early success.
Some valuable playmakers return to the roster, too. Leading rusher Ja’Kyrian “Boosie” Turner is back after totaling 745 yards and seven touchdowns. And Cataurus “Blue” Hicks is a familiar target for Heintchel. He caught 24 passes for 422 yards and four touchdowns in his first season at Pitt a year ago.
Heintschel hopes that continuity after a full offseason atop the depth chart can lead to even more chemistry in Year 2.
"I was a little inexperienced last year, so I was just trying to kind of still pick up on the offense, still trying to be a guy that can gel with the receivers,” he told the team’s website in July. “Now coming into this off season, we have that connection already, building that throughout this off season, building that in spring ball and now. It just helps me be more of a confident player as well."
The young quarterback is flying a bit under the radar nationally. Though he’s been named to a few preseason award watch lists, he finished ninth in voting for the conference’s preseason player of the year honors. He was the fourth quarterback in the voting, behind Miami’s Darian Mensah, SMU’s Kevin Jennings and NC State’s CJ Bailey.
His three votes, however, were more than Pickett received in 2021 before tearing through the conference, winning that award and heading to New York as a Heisman Trophy finalist.
That’s not to say those should be the expectations for Heintschel. Pickett, after all, was in his fourth full season as a starter before he went off. He nevertheless feels he has the pieces to do more than the experts are calling, and will look to maintain the winning attitude he was able to imbue into the program late last season in the meantime.
"I feel like carrying myself with a high confidence level, no matter what the situation is, brings other people up," Heintschel told reporters Aug. 10. "I think people feed off that confidence and energy."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Pitt hopeful QB carousel ends with big second year from Mason Heintschel
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