Mason Heintschel almost didn\u2019t get a chance to tie the Pitt record \u2014 and set an ACC standard \u2014 for touchdown passes in a game Saturday.<\/p>\n
Heintschel punctuated Pitt\u2019s
\n59-14 victory against Miami (Ohio) by throwing his seventh touchdown pass with 9 minutes, 34 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
Coach Pat Narduzzi said he nearly removed the sophomore quarterback from the game before he got a chance to tie Pete Gonzalez\u2019s school benchmark.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought about taking him out,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cThe last drive he was in there from the third quarter to the fourth. I decided to let him finish that drive, but I almost yanked him out in the middle of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gonzalez threw seven touchdown passes in an October 1997 game at Rutgers, needing a second overtime period to make history. Heintschel didn\u2019t face nearly as much adversity in leading the Panthers to a 45-point victory.<\/p>\n
With the score out of hand, Heintschel never got a chance to hold the single-game touchdown record outright. Narduzzi inserted backup Holden Geriner on the next offensive series.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not worried about records,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cI\u2019m worried about winning football games and coming out of the game healthy. We came out healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heintschel distributed his touchdown passes to seven players, and he completed 31 of 41 attempts for 453 yards and no interceptions. His performance was witnessed by 43,929 at Acrisure Stadium, including another record-setting quarterback.<\/p>\n
Former Pittsburgh\u00a0Steelers quarterback and Miami (Ohio) alum Ben Roethlisberger watched the game after visiting the RedHawks sideline beforehand. Not even his presence could spark his alma mater to an upset as Miami (Ohio) trailed 21-0 in the first quarter and never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.<\/p>\n
Heintschel threw three touchdown passes in the first half and four in the second. On the receiving end of his touchdowns were Cataurus \u201cBlue\u201d Hicks, Censere \u201cC.J.\u201d Lee, Malik Knight, Bryce Yates, tight end Elijah Lagg and running backs Ja\u2019Kyrian \u201cBoosie\u201d Turner and Damon Ferguson Jr. Pitt finished with 646 yards of total offense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s never really by design,\u201d Heintschel said, \u201cbut I\u2019m glad that we were able to kind of share the wealth throughout the day. I think we had at least eight different guys score touchdowns today. Can\u2019t complain about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eighth touchdown was produced by running back Justin Cook, who took his only handoff of the game and raced 50 yards for a score to give Pitt a 14-0 lead in the first quarter. Cook wasn\u2019t listed on the three-deep depth chart provided by Narduzzi before the opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt tells you you\u2019d better cover them all,\u201d Narduzzi said about the diverse scoring. \u201cThey\u2019re all making plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heintschel was adept at stepping up in the pocket and eluding pressure. He bought time to go through his progressions and check down to his running backs when needed. Such was the case on his short pass that Turner turned into a 45-yard score in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s like the little magician back there,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cNot only can he throw it, he has that knack to make people miss and get out of trouble when trouble arises. He\u2019s got great awareness and visuals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Narduzzi\u2019s concern about Miami (Ohio) adding another tomahawk \u2014 a symbol of a victory against a higher-level Division I opponent \u2014 were unfounded, although the RedHawks threw an early scare into the Panthers.<\/p>\n
Woodland Hills product Scoop Smith took the opening kickoff 55 yards to the Pitt 45. But on fourth-and-4 from the 39, RedHawks coach Chuck Martin opted to punt. The Panthers then drove 80 yards in eight plays to score the first of their three touchdowns in the opening quarter.<\/p>\n
Knight, a Western Carolina transfer, took a short pass and scored from 17 yards. The long touchdown run by Cook, an East Stroudsburg transfer, pushed the lead to double digits.<\/p>\n
After Pitt got the ball back at midfield following a 17-yard punt, Heintschel completed a seven-play, 50-yard drive with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Lagg for a 21-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know we\u2019re better than this,\u201d Martin said. \u201cThey\u2019re really good. Pitt imposed its will on us, so I\u2019m giving 1,000% credit to Pitt, but I know we\u2019re better than we played today.\u201d<\/p>\n
RedHawks quarterback David McComb, a Kansas transfer, faced constant pressure and completed 16 of 33 attempts for 240 yards and one touchdown. He hooked up with Damarion Witten on a 75-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter that cut Pitt\u2019s lead to 28-14.<\/p>\n
From that point, however, the RedHawks gained just 96 total yards on their final six series. Pitt also forced a turnover in the fourth quarter with a Rashan Murray interception.<\/p>\n
For good measure, kicker Antonio Chadha\u2019s first field goal attempt for the Panthers was a memorable one. On the final play of the first half, he lined a 58-yard try through the uprights for a 31-14 lead.<\/p>\n
It represented another sign of the Panthers\u2019 fortunes Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve watched some sloppy football in openers,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cI thought this was a pretty clean opener, maybe the cleanest opener that we\u2019ve had here at Pitt.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mason Heintschel almost didn\u2019t get a chance to tie the Pitt record \u2014 and set an ACC standard…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391816,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":["post-391815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391815"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391815\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}