Pitt loses QB Mason Heintschel to injury but stays perfect with win over Virginia Tech

BLACKSBURG, Va. — It wasn’t as if Pitt won a bowl game, ACC championship or College Football Playoff game Friday night at Virginia Tech.

But the circumstances of the Panthers’ 35-33 Week 5 win at Lane Stadium — having lost quarterback Mason Heintschel to a potentially serious injury, battling back from an early two-touchdown hole, hanging on with backup Holden Geriner and surviving on a last-second missed field goal by the Hokies — may well have generated one of the most memorable victories of the Pat Narduzzi era.

“I tell our guys all the time — there’s going to be ups and downs,” Narduzzi said. “Our guys rode the wave, never gave in and never batted an eye. They believed all the way until the end. I think faith and belief, that’s what this football team’s got. They’ve got a lot of guts in that locker room.”

With three seconds to play, Virginia Tech looked in solid position to steal the game back, as John Love set up for a 36-yard field goal try.

As time expired, Love, his teammates and the sellout crowd of 65,632 thought the Hokies had done just that.

But Love’s kick sailed over the left upright for a dramatic, game-ending miss, keeping the Panthers (5-0, 2-0 ACC) undefeated.

Virginia Tech (4-1, 1-1) suffered its first loss of the year, as Narduzzi moved to 2-3 all-time against James Franklin, the Hokies’ first-year coach who previously battled Narduzzi four times (2016-19) while at Penn State.

For Pitt’s players, the game and ending won’t be soon forgotten.

“To be honest, we’re always taught, ‘Don’t look at it,’ so I wasn’t looking at it,” Leechburg alum and Panthers linebacker Braylan Lovelace said of the missed field goal. “I just seen everybody’s hands over their heads and was like, ‘Aw, man.’ But then our sideline went crazy.”

As the Panthers relish their victory, a sober reality will soon set in, if it hasn’t already: the prospects of Heintschel being lost for extended time.

With just under 13 minutes to go in the third quarter and Pitt trailing 28-24, Heintschel scrambled for a first down but was tackled awkwardly on the sideline.

Immediately, he went down, grabbing his right knee.

Helped up, he entered Pitt’s sideline injury tent before limping to the Panthers’ locker room, not to return to the game.

???? Mason Heintschel suffered a knee injury on the scramble out of bounds.

Replay shows the defender striking the anterior and medial side of his knee, raising concern for injury to the knee’s medial structures.

Differential includes MCL injury, ACL injury, or combined ACL/MCL…

That set the stage for Geriner, a career backup at Auburn (2022-24) and Texas State (2025) with negligible playing experience.

Geriner promptly led the Panthers downfield on a run-exclusive drive, which Damon Ferguson Jr. capped with a 15-yard touchdown that gave Pitt its first lead of the game, 28-24.

Then, just 1 minute, 2 seconds into the final quarter, Geriner hit Blue Hicks for a 29-yard touchdown pass to give Pitt a 35-24 advantage.

On the night, Geriner went 8 of 12 through the air for 78 yards and a score, doing enough — without making any costly errors — to guide his team to a win in relief.

Heintschel was 10 of 18 for 113 yards and a touchdown at the time of his injury.

Narduzzi did not have an update on his status postgame.

“I prepare just like Mason does to be the starter if that time comes,” said Geriner, who turned 23 Friday. “Unfortunately, for Mason, it came tonight. Thoughts and prayers with Mason — he’s one of my best friends and my thoughts and prayers are with him. Preparation goes into it and that leads to confidence. That’s kind of the mindset I had going in. I prepared all week and knew if the moment were to come, I’d be prepared. Thankfully, the preparation paid off.”

After Pitt took an 11-point lead, Virginia Tech swiftly demonstrated that the game was far from over.

With 11:06 to play, Ferguson was stuffed in the end zone for a safety, making the score 35-26.

Then, 53 seconds later, following a 62-yard Jeffrey Overton free kick return, Hokies quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer hit Davion Brown for a touchdown, as Pitt’s lead was trimmed to 35-33.

From there, Pitt’s offense proved incapable of putting the game away, embarking on multiple ineffective drives that kept Virginia Tech alive.

The Hokies’ final drive began with 3:54 to play and saw them knock on the Panthers’ door, advancing into seemingly easy field goal territory for a game-winning try.

As every player, coach and fan in Lane Stadium held their breath, the attempt went inches, if not millimeters, wide.

“You talk about adversity — there was adversity all over the place,” Narduzzi said. “Then they get a safety, then they get a big return, then they score and then we’re only up by two with five minutes to go. … Just tells you what kind of football team we have. Found a way to get it done and we probably didn’t play our best.”

Killer for Virginia Tech Friday was the turnover margin.

Grunkemeyer, who entered the evening with zero interceptions on the year and having attempted 256 straight passes without one, threw two: linebacker Cameron Lindsey had the first with about a minute left in the second quarter, and cornerback Shawn Lee came down with one at the 11:55 mark of the final quarter.

The Hokies quarterback also fumbled twice (losing one), while Overton also lost a fumble.

All told, Virginia Tech committed four turnovers to Pitt’s zero.

Grunkemeyer finished the game having completed 30 of 41 passes for 434 yards and three scores.

“That’s something that we really emphasized this week, is taking the ball away,” Lovelace said. “Last week (against Bucknell), we had a lot of missed (opportunities), a lot of times we could have created turnovers. So this week we emphasized that when the ball’s in the air or there’s any opportunity to take the ball away, we have to make sure we do so.”

Pitt also overcame a putrid start to the game on both sides of the ball, as the offense was ineffective and Grunkemeyer and Overton sliced up the defense to take a 14-0 lead less than five minutes in.

The Panthers and Hokies then traded punts, and with seconds left on the clock in the opening quarter, Ja’Kyrian Turner, making his return after a three-game absence, made it 14-7 with a 20-yard touchdown run.

Love made it 17-7 Hokies in the second with a 26-yard field goal, but Pitt countered with 5:14 to go before halftime as La’Vell Wright punched in a touchdown from a yard out.

Virginia Tech went up 24-14 shortly thereafter on a Grunkemeyer connection to Ayden Greene, but Lindsey came up huge with an interception at the Hokies’ 19-yard-line to give Pitt’s offense a chance to inch closer heading into halftime.

Heintschel obliged, hitting Hicks for a 22-yard score that made Pitt’s deficit 24-21.

The Hokies significantly outgained Pitt, 499-295, with Que’Sean Brown racking up 147 receiving yards on seven receptions.

All three of Pitt’s primary tailbacks — Turner, Ferguson and Wright — found the end zone, while Hicks led the wideouts with three catches for 63 yards and a score.

Pitt’s win tied the all-time series with Virginia Tech at 12-12.