By Ray Porter Jr. for Urban Media Today
STANFORD, CA–To paraphrase DJ Khalid, All the Pitt Panthers do is win, win, win, ‘no matter what.’
The Panthers continued their winning ways in a 35-20 victory vs. the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium, extending their winning streak to 5 games and improving their record to 7-2 (5-1 ACC)
“We got a great victory, it’s never easy in the ACC.” said Pitt head coach Pat Narduzzi. “To go on the road across the country, I thought our guys did a heck of a job of just managing the trip, the miles. I’m not sure we did a great job with the hydration; I had two of the guys cramping up there at the end. I’m happy with the win. I thought the defense played outstanding.”
Walk-on Freshman Mason Heitschel had another superb game as he completed 23 passes for 304 yards and three touchdowns in the fifth start of his career. He also added 21 yards on the ground. Heintschel has now thrown at least three touchdown passes in three of the last five games. He has thrown over 300 yards in four of those five games. He is the first true freshman to record at least three touchdown passes and 300 passing yards in three of his first six career games since Jameis Winston in 2013 (four games).
Heintschel is tied for the second-most such games by a true freshman since 2000 (Luke McCown and Philip Rivers). He has now led the Panthers to a first-drive touchdown in each of his first five starts. So far this season, Heintschel has thrown for 1,547 yards and 12 touchdowns.
“Offensively, again, gained a lot of yards but we can’t turn the ball over in the red zone three times, down the goal line three times, just can’t have it.” Said Narduzzi. “That’s probably the most disappointing thing, but we’ll live and learn from that. Again, young quarterback, he’s got to learn how to just take what they’re giving you and not try to force things and try to get touchdown passes and try to make those plays.”
Pitt’s defense held the Cardinal to negative 10 yards rushing this afternoon. It’s Pitt’s lowest allowed rushing total in Pat Narduzzi’s 11 years as head coach. It also marks just the fourth time they have held an opponent to negative rushing yards under Narduzzi. The Panther defense recorded five sacks for the second time this season. Pitt forced three interceptions for the second time this season. Their two games with three interceptions tie for the second-most by the team in a single season and mark the first time Pitt has done so since 2022.
“But defense, four fourth down stops, we dropped two interceptions, and we didn’t finish as well in the first half. We had a chance.” Said Narduzzi. “They scored a touchdown off the dropped interception. But really, everything we got today is what we needed.”
RB Ja’Kyhrian Turner recorded the first 100-yard rushing game of his career, rushing for a career-high 127 yards on career-high 22 attempts. Turner combined for a career-high 163 all-purpose yards in the win (127 rush, 36 receiving) He led Pitt in rushing for the fourth time this year. Turner is Pitt’s first 100-yard rusher this season and the first since Desmond Reid ran for 167 yards in the GameAbove Sports Bowl last season.
“Yeah, I felt really good for Ja’Karian. Boosie’s a great player,” said Narduzzi. “Obviously, Desmond didn’t go today, it was a game time decision. He didn’t feel great, but Boosie’s a guy, Justin Cook got in there and made a nice play. I don’t know how many plays he got and Juelz Goff, but Boosie is a football player. He’s tough, he’s physical and he’s a Des Reid 2.0.”
The Panthers will now go on their second Bye of the season before facing their most challenging test November 15 when nationally ranked Notre Dame comes to Acrisure Stadium.
“Next week, obviously we’ll get on the road recruiting on Friday. We don’t have many days left, but we’re going to use this bye week to get out there.” Said Narduzzi. “We’re going to stay fresh. We’ll have two practices. Both of them will be in spider pads, so there will not be a lot of physical contact, but we’ll mentally be way ahead on the Irish.”
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