{"id":7134,"date":"2025-10-16T20:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7134\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T20:09:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T20:09:12","slug":"pittsburgh-quarterback-mason-heintschel-keeps-impressing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/7134\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Heintschel keeps impressing"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Pat Narduzzi keeps putting tests in front of Mason Heintschel<\/a>. And the Pittsburgh freshman quarterback keeps passing.<\/p>\n

The latest came at halftime last weekend at Florida State<\/a> after Heintschel had thrown interceptions on consecutive possessions to give the Seminoles momentum.<\/p>\n

Narduzzi has been around plenty of quarterbacks during his 35-year coaching career. Not all of them handled adversity well. Their demeanor shifts.<\/p>\n

Not Heintschel\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe continues to come back,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cHe\u2019s just got a swagger about him and a confidence that it doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two hours later, Heintschel was kneeling to finish off a 34-31 stunner, an upset the Panthers pulled off thanks in large part to a 321-yard, two-touchdown performance by their teenage quarterback who hardly looks overcome by the stakes or the stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew that the guys had my back for sure and they all told me that as well and they knew I wasn\u2019t going to let those two plays phase me,\u201d Heintschel said.<\/p>\n

And suddenly, a season that looked on the verge of spinning out of control after back-to-back losses to West Virginia and Louisville in September now looks considerably more promising.<\/p>\n

Heintschel\u2019s emergence, the return of do-everything running back Desmond Reid from a left leg injury, and the rise of a handful of other newcomers have combined to give Pitt (4-2, 2-1 ACC) a jolt.<\/p>\n

The Panthers head to Syracuse (3-3, 1-2) on Saturday with a chance to get right back into the mix in an ACC that appears to be wide-open behind early frontrunners No. 2 Miami and No. 12 Georgia Tech, both of whom are on the Pitt schedule in late November.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got a talented team that\u2019s fun to watch, and we\u2019ll be (in) every game the rest of the year,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been (in) every game so far. It\u2019s not like it\u2019s been 38-10 blowouts and we\u2019ve lost and you\u2019re coming in here hang-dogging. We\u2019re going to be in football games; we\u2019ve just got to take care of the business at hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not wrong. The Panthers held the lead in both of their losses well into the second half, only to let things get away late. Narduzzi pointed to the way Pitt responded against a Florida State team stinging after a loss to the rival Hurricanes as proof his group is maturing.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur guys bowed up and knew it\u2019s a 60-minute game,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cWe came out and played four quarters. We played four better quarters than they did. That\u2019s what counts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heintschel is hardly the only freshman making an impact. Cornerback Shawn Lee has fit in quickly in Pitt\u2019s aggressive press-man scheme. Running backs Ja\u2019Kyrian Turner and Juelz Goff filled in capably \u2014 if not quite as explosively \u2014 while Reid recovered from a leg injury that briefly had him sporting a cast.<\/p>\n

Their production gave offensive coordinator Kade Bell options when Reid returned. Turner ran for a pair of scores against the Seminoles and the electric 5-foot-9 Reid did what he does as well as any back in the country: create havoc in open space. Reid had 200 yards of total offense, including 155 yards receiving, highlighted by a 16-yard touchdown catch in the third quarter that tied the game.<\/p>\n

While Narduzzi declined to call his current group of freshmen the best he\u2019s had in his 11 seasons, their development has created a kind of optimism that was hard to come by a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s opportunity,\u201d Narduzzi said. \u201cOur guys have run with the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH (AP) \u2014 Pat Narduzzi keeps putting tests in front of Mason Heintschel. And the Pittsburgh freshman quarterback…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[7607,7600,111,143,7606,3731,7603,57,7609,7604,7599,7602,6761,7605,7608,110,4692,232,234,233,4701,7601],"class_list":["post-7134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-athlete-injuries","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-college-sports","tag-college-football","tag-desmond-reid","tag-florida-state-seminoles","tag-florida-state-seminoles-football","tag-football","tag-kade-bell","tag-pa-state-wire","tag-pat-narduzzi","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pittsburgh-panthers","tag-pittsburgh-panthers-football","tag-shawn-lee","tag-sports","tag-syracuse-orange","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers","tag-west-virginia-mountaineers-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134","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=7134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}