BLACKSBURG, Va. — Pat Narduzzi wanted to take 24 hours to celebrate Friday’s thrilling 35-33 win at Virginia Tech. After all, the Panthers earned it.
But the news Narduzzi and the Panthers feared came fast.
Starting quarterback Mason Heintschel, a standout sophomore, has a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season, ESPN reported Saturday afternoon.
That is a massive blow to the Panthers, who sit at 5-0 after Holden Geriner replaced Heintschel before the Panthers held on to beat the Hokies here Friday.
Early in the third quarter, on a third-and-8, Heintschel bounced out of the pocket and scrambled. He was wrapped up and taken down along the sideline near the first down marker, but another Virginia Tech defender flew in and appeared to strike Heintschel’s knee.
Heintschel instantly grabbed his knee and received medical attention, and his status seemed grim when he struggled to put any weight on his leg and was seen later on walking with the assistance of crutches.
“It sucks,” offensive tackle and captain Ryan Baer said. “But he’s a tough kid, and he’ll bounce back.”
Will the Panthers? That’s a fair question even with the guts they showed at a rowdy Lane Stadium on Friday, winning a game that featured anything and everything.
“You talk about adversity, man,” Narduzzi said. “There was adversity all over the place.”
After Heintschel went down Friday, in came Geriner — a fifth-year senior transfer from Texas State who spent three years before that with Auburn. Geriner was celebrating his 23rd birthday on Friday and completed 8 of 12 passes for 78 yards and the second touchdown throw of his college career.
Early in the fourth quarter, he dropped back and surveyed the field with plenty of time before delivering a strike to Cataurus Hicks for a 29-yard score.
Geriner said he felt like he was “playing free.”
“This is what I prayed for my whole life,” Geriner said of his role in the win, which came after Pitt watched Virginia Tech miss a last-second field goal.
After the game, the severity of Heintschel’s injury was still being determined. Asked if he felt he was up to the challenge of leading the offense if Heintschel were to miss an extended period of time, Geriner didn’t skip a beat.
“Absolutely,” Geriner said. “ … My thoughts and prayers are with Mason, but if that’s the case then I’m going to do everything I can to continue preparing, as I’ve been doing, to lead this team.”
We will soon find out he is up for the challenge. Pitt will play a high-profile home game next Saturday against Bill Belichick’s North Carolina squad.
Perhaps a sign of Pitt’s confidence in Geriner was the late-game play-calling Friday.
With 5:30 remaining and Pitt leading 35-33, one might have reasonably expected the Panthers to hand the ball off and chew some clock. Instead, Geriner threw three straight passes.
“We’re not going to play conservative,” Narduzzi said. “We’re not just worried about milking the clock.”
Even with a backup in who’d thrown only 35 passes in five years of college football prior to Friday, that didn’t change.
It nearly backfired as the Hokies easily drove down the field and set up for a short field goal, but kicker Josh Love’s attempt sailed over the left upright.
Immediately after the game, in an impassioned on-field interview with ESPN, Narduzzi said, “We got a hell of a football team. Any of those voters out there, if they wake their ass up, they might figure that out.”
Narduzzi and Pitt (5-0, 2-0 ACC) have more pressing matters to worry about than AP voters now that they’ve received the crushing news about Heintschel.
In the offseason, Pitt ponied up the money to kept Heintschel, who was being chased by Miami and others. The talented sophomore showed he was worth it by throwing for 1,304 yards and 14 touchdowns with just one interception before he went down midway through Friday’s win.
Geriner has big shoes to fill. But on Friday, he vowed to do everything he could to be ready if the Panthers needed him. Turns out, they absolutely do.
“It’s been a lot of adversity along the way,” Geriner said, “so just keeping the main thing the main thing. My job is to go help the team win, whatever my role is, and I’ll embrace that.”