Injury-depleted Pitt clobbers N.C. State behind Mason Heintschel's career day

Injuries were plaguing Pitt heading into Saturday’s game against N.C. State at Acrisure Stadium.

Before the day was done, more injuries would ravage an already-depleted squad.

But despite missing linebackers Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles and losing receiver Kenny Johnson and tailback Desmond Reid mid-game, the Panthers (6-2, 4-1 ACC) still clobbered the Wolfpack, 53-34, for their fourth straight win, securing bowl eligibility in the process.

That was largely thanks to a big day from quarterback Mason Heintschel, who passed for a career-high 423 yards, completing 28 of 48 passes with three touchdowns.

“We had to find a way to get it done, and our kids played their tails off,” coach Pat Narduzzi said postgame. “(Offensively), we were, obviously, really explosive. Mason played at a really high level, and that’s how you win football games.”

Heintschel produced the first 400-yard game by a Pitt quarterback since Kenny Pickett on Nov. 6, 2021, and set a program record for single-game passing yards by a freshman.

He completed passes to 11 players, including Johnson (seven catches, 112 yards, touchdown), Blue Hicks (4/120/1) and Poppi Williams (5/62/1).

Johnson was lost for the day a few seconds before halftime after lunging into the end zone, and Reid got banged up in the third quarter.

Without them, Pitt still managed a season-high 529 yards of total offense. Defensively, the Panthers significantly limited the ACC’s leading rusher, N.C. State’s Hollywood Smothers.

Smothers broke free for a 65-yard touchdown in the second quarter, but otherwise was held to 21 yards on seven carries.

“The defense played absolutely lights-out,” Heintschel said. “Coach Narduzzi talked about minimizing those big plays. (N.C. State) had a couple in the first half, but the defense absolutely fought their tails off.”

For the fourth straight game, coinciding with Heintschel becoming the starter, Pitt scored an opening-drive touchdown as Ja’Kyrian Turner punched it in from a yard at the 11:13 mark of the opening half.

Turner, who scored Pitt’s final touchdown in the fourth, led the team with 50 yards on 13 rushes.

After a Trey Butkowski field goal from 34 yards — the first of four from him Saturday — Pitt jumped to a 10-0 lead about five minutes later. But Wolfpack quarterback C.J. Bailey soon responded, finding Justin Joly for a 25-yard touchdown.

Pitt increased its lead to 17-7 when Reid scored a short touchdown, his first on the ground since Aug. 30 versus Duquesne, early in the second quarter.

Only seconds later, Smothers exploded out of the backfield for a 65-yard score, making it 17-14 Pitt with 14:57 left before halftime.

Pitt and N.C. State traded passing touchdowns as the second quarter wound down, and the Panthers clung to a 24-21 lead.

But with about three minutes to go in the half, Pitt embarked on a four-play, 83-yard scoring drive, with Johnson absorbing punishment at the goal line to make it 31-21.

“(Johnson) and I have a great connection, but all the receivers are just balling out right now,” Heintschel said. “It’s great for us.”

Pitt’s short-handed defense took over in the third quarter, forcing a punt, recovering a fumble and forcing back-to-back turnovers on downs on the Wolfpack’s first four possessions of the second half.

In the meantime, Butkowski drilled three field goals (from 41, 45 and 43 yards), and Heintschel connected on a bomb of 84 yards to Hicks to help put the game away.

Entering the fourth quarter, Pitt led 46-21.

Bailey threw two more touchdown passes in the fourth quarter, but by then things were far out of reach for N.C. State, with Pitt managing a late touchdown (Turner’s), as well.

“They’re a good football team,” Narduzzi said. “But guess what: We got a better football team, and I think that’s the thing that everybody’s got to realize.”