Pitt football held its annual Blue-Gold spring game on a gloomy, cold Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium. The game featured four 10-minute quarters with limited tackling, depending on the play.
Captains for each team held a draft to determine who landed where, with some exceptions, like the offensive line. Blue wound up with more of Pitt’s 2024 defensive starters, while Gold landed offensive starters like redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein and junior wide receiver Kenny Johnson.
Holstein, who rose to fame as Pitt’s starting quarterback last season, looked rather off. For a game that has little to no meaning for his job security, you can’t really blame him for not putting his whole heart into it, but he certainly took a while to get into the swing of things.
To his credit, Holstein did pick things up later in the game. While some of his more on-target throws were dropped by his receiving corps, Holstein was able to almost mount a full comeback from down 17-0. Gold’s first scoring drive was powered by senior running back Justin Cook, and Holstein dragged Gold back for a second touchdown drive very late in the fourth quarter, getting his team within three before time ran out.
Meanwhile, as Holstein started out cold, incoming first-year quarterback Mason Heintschel came in ready to play. Heintschel went a perfect 6 for 6 to start the game and made several concise throws to his receivers, who, on paper, weren’t as strong a unit as Gold’s.
Heintschel’s first play of the second half saw him hit redshirt sophomore receiver Cataurus “Blue” Hicks on a slant, who took it to the house for his team’s second touchdown of the day.
Head coach Pat Narduzzi complimented Hicks after the game.
“We might have to change his number at the end of fall camp,” Narduzzi said. “He wants a single digit. If he keeps playing like that, he’ll get one.”
While Holstein rallied in the second half, Heintschel definitely outperformed Blue’s redshirt first-year quarterback Julian Dugger and Gold’s redshirt sophomore quarterback David Lynch on Saturday. He was one of the big winners of the day.
“[Heintschel is] a good football player,” Narduzzi said. “He’s just got a little swagger to him, and he threw the ball well.”
Narduzzi said that Heintschel is one of three quarterbacks the program feels they can win football games with, but singled him out for his solid work despite having no college experience.
“For Mason to come in as a true freshman and play like he has is impressive,” Narduzzi said.
Junior linebacker Kyle Louis, as one could have predicted, had a monster day. He terrorized Gold’s offense and even put up a touchdown of his own, tossing one into the end zone for a passing touchdown.
“He was supposed to run that,” Narduzzi said with a smile. “He was supposed to run it, come back and run a toss pass. But he’s like, ‘It was open, I had to throw it.’ He said, ‘Coach, players make plays,’ and that’s a fact.”
Louis wasn’t the only player on defense to stand out on Saturday. Redshirt sophomore defensive back Shadarian Harrison, fresh off getting named the most improved defensive player of the spring for Pitt, made his name known in a statement performance. On the second play of the game, Harrison picked off Holstein on a mishandled run-pass motion play by the Gold offense.
Harrison picked off Holstein a second time later in the game as well, reading the wide receiver’s route and leaping up to swipe the ball away.
Harrison’s first pick allowed Blue to get its first points on the board. Blue redshirt sophomore kicker Sam Carpenter made a solid first impression when he kicked a chip shot through the uprights to give his team a 3-0 lead.
Carpenter and Gold’s junior kicker James London are in a battle for the job for the upcoming season. Both are looking to fill the vacancy left by departing senior kicker Ben Sauls, who declared for the upcoming NFL Draft in Green Bay.
Carpenter definitely got the upper hand on Saturday, kicking a field goal and making two extra points for Blue. London, meanwhile, missed a pair of field goal tries, which, as Narduzzi pointed out, loomed large late in the game with Gold trying to mount a comeback.
“James didn’t play well today, like he has, but maybe he got nervous. I bet you if we had a second spring game, he’d have been alright,” Narduzzi said.
The spring game won’t eliminate London’s chances of getting the job, but it could put Carpenter in the driver’s seat moving forward.
Defense was the name of the game in the relatively low-scoring match, but Narduzzi seemed satisfied with the way a lot of offensive players looked as well, including Gold’s first-year receiver Cameron Sapp. Sapp caught a pass in the end zone from Holstein with 31 seconds left in the fourth quarter, bringing the game to its final score of 17-14.
With the spring game behind them and months to go before the regular season kicks off, the Panthers have work to do and decisions to make in order to rewrite the woes of the previous season and bring Pitt back to gridiron glory.