Heintschel becomes Pitt's first true sophomore captain since 1990
Mason Heintschel became Pitt's first true sophomore team captain since 1990 as the Panthers open this morning against a Miami (OH) team suddenly starting a quarterback with 0 career pass attempts.
Heintschel becomes Pitt's first true sophomore captain since 1990
Pat Narduzzi handed out 4 captain armbands this week, and the one that made people do a double take belonged to sophomore quarterback Mason Heintschel, voted in by his own teammates alongside fifth-year tackle Ryan Baer, senior linebacker Braylan Lovelace and senior safety Cruce Brookins. Upperclassmen almost always get the nod in this program, which is what makes the vote worth repeating: Heintschel is believed to be Pitt's first true sophomore captain in the modern era, ahead of redshirt sophomores Tyler Palko in 2004, Lousaka Polite in 2001 and Alex Van Pelt in 1990, per pittsburghpanthers.com. He took the job over in-season last year and finished it out as one of the more productive first-year starters in the country, per On3.
It tracks with how the room around him has looked all camp. Narduzzi opened camp saying Pitt's quarterbacks have protected the ball far better than a year ago, telling reporters the group has roughly cut its turnovers in half through the first practices, per pittsburghpanthers.com. He later put it more specifically: "the way Holden and Mason are throwing in rhythm is most of the key" to an offense that protected the ball through 2 scrimmages — a nod to Holden Geriner, the Auburn and Texas State transfer who has taken hold of the No. 2 job behind Heintschel this fall, per 247Sports.
The résumé backs the vote up. Heintschel started 8 games as a true freshman last year and went 6-3 in them, emerging as one of the ACC's top young quarterbacks along the way, per his own program's bio page at pittsburghpanthers.com. Two of his fellow captains arrive with hardware behind their votes, too — Lovelace was a preseason All-ACC first-team pick and offensive lineman BJ Williams a third-team selection from Athlon Sports, who put camp's identity plainly after the second scrimmage: the group has been winning by "doing the little things right." A true sophomore getting voted captain by a room that decorated is not an accident — it is what a clean camp looks like from the inside.
Last season closed on a 3-game skid that ended at East Carolina
Pitt finished last season with a 17-23 loss at East Carolina on December 27, a flat way to end a year that had real high points. 3 weeks earlier, on November 23, the Panthers had gone into Georgia Tech and won 42-28 — their best offensive showing of the stretch — only to get run off the field by Miami 6 days later, 7-38, on November 29.
Go back further and it was a genuinely uneven finish to last season: a 35-20 win at Stanford on November 1 sandwiched around a 15-37 loss to Notre Dame 2 weeks later. 4 results, 3 different margins of double digits, and not one of them offers much to carry into a season that starts fresh at 0-0. That's the point of a captain vote like Heintschel's — it's a bet on continuity heading into a year where last season's box scores don't apply anymore.
Miami (OH) turns to an unproven backup before Pitt ever gets to renew this rivalry
Saturday's opener is only the third all-time meeting between these two programs, and Pitt has won both of the first 2 — 61-0 in 1931 and 35-26 in the last one, played at Pitt on October 15, 1949, per Winsipedia and the box score at Sports Reference. That is 77 years between visits for a RedHawks program that has otherwise had nothing to do with Pitt's schedule in the modern era.
Miami (OH) is not a soft season-opener token, either. Chuck Martin is in his 13th season running the program, has it at 20-4 in the MAC over the past 3 years, and has taken the RedHawks to 3 straight MAC title games without a losing season since 2022, per 247Sports. There's a strange bit of overlap on the Pitt sideline, too: Narduzzi himself coached at Miami (OH) in 1990 and 2003 before taking the Pitt job.
The matchup got stranger this week when Miami's presumptive starter, Thomas Gotkowski, went down with what Martin called a non-contact, season-ending injury: "We feel horrible for Thomas. It just stinks." That hands the job to David McComb, a Kansas transfer who threw 0 passes in a game for the Jayhawks in 2025 and now makes his first career start at Acrisure Stadium — a quarterback Martin himself describes as "really talent, really inexperienced," per bythebelt.com. Add in a Miami defense that lost 8 of its top 10 tacklers from last season, with linebacker Malcolm McCain the only returning name of note per 247Sports, and Pitt's opener looks considerably softer than it did a week ago.
Pitt opens as a heavy favorite against a defense it will barely recognize by kickoff
The line opened at Pitt -16.5, with the total set at 50.5 — a number that reads low for a game with a favorite that large, and probably says as much about how little anybody trusts a Miami (OH) offense that just lost its starting quarterback as it does about Pitt's own attack. It's this morning vs. Miami, and the first look at Lovelace leading a defensive front that also debuts Purdue linebacker Alex Sanford Jr. and Auburn cornerback Raion Strader against a quarterback making his first career start.
Win or lose, the schedule does not let up long: Pitt is back at Acrisure Stadium on September 12 vs. UCF, a Group of 5 team that opened its own season with a 73-6 win over Bethune-Cookman. For today, though, the story is a green Miami (OH) offense meeting a Pitt defense that returns its leading tackler — as good a script as this program could have drawn for a season opener that also happens to be Heintschel's first game wearing a captain's patch.