Pitt Walk-On QB Transfers to Division III Powerhouse

A Pitt Panthers walk-on quarterback transferred back home.

Nov 16, 2024; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Jake Frantl (17) warms up before the game against the Clemson Tigers at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images / Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers had a walk-on quarterback transfer to a Division III powerhouse for their final season of college football.

Redshirt junior quarterback Jake Frantl announced that he is transferring from Pitt and committed to Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Coming home! @WarhawkFootball pic.twitter.com/4Nu16QVbUY

— Jake Frantl (@jake_frantl) January 1, 2025

Frantl hails from Erin, Wis. and played for Hartford Union High School in nearby Hartford, Wis. He threw for 2,900 yards and 35 touchdowns, earning all-state accolades as a senior in 2019, as well as North Shore Conference and Washington County Player of the Year.

His play led Hartford Union to an 11-1 record and the North Shore Conference title and also earned him a spot in the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association All-Star Game

Frantl would play at Georgia Knights Prep Academy in Snellville, Ga., captaining the football team for the 2020 season.

He committed to Pitt as a part of the Class of 2021 and won the ACC Championship his freshman season, the first in program history. He didn't play at all in his four seasons with the team.

Frantl was also one of three players, along with former walk-on Hudson Primus and defensive end Samuel Okunlola, who all found themselves at Dallas airport with no way to get to the Sun Bowl in El Paso, Texas.

UTEP basketball coach Joe Golding found a rental car big enough to bring the three players, plus his wife and son from Dallas to El Paso in time for the bowl game.

Frantl, who stands 6-foot, 205 pounds will now head back home to his new school, just 40 miles from where he grew up.

Wisconsin-Whitewater won six Division III National Titles from 2007-14, with five consecutive from 2009-14, under head coach Lance Leipold, who is now at the helm of Kansas.

Frantl is the third walk-on to leave Pitt this season, along with fellow redshirt junior in offensive lineman Matt Metrosky and redshirt sophomore defensive lineman Thomas Aden, who landed at Kent State.

He is also the third quarterback to leave the program following the end of the regular season. Fellow redshirt junior Nate Yarnell went back home to Texas State and redshirt freshman Ty Dieffenbach also departed home for FCS program Cal Poly.

Frantl is one of 10 offensive players who have left Pitt for the transfer portal, along with Metrosky, Yarnell and Dieffenbach.

This includes running backs in senior Rodney Hammond Jr. and redshirt freshman Montravius Lloyd, wide receivers in redshirt senior Jake McConnachie, redshirt junior Daejon Reynolds and redshirt freshman Lamar Seymore and redshirt junior offensive lineman Terrence Moore, who landed at Toledo.

He is also one of 21 players overall that have left Pitt for the transfer portal, with 10 more players on defense.

This features defensive linemen in redshirt juniors Chief Borders, Elliot Donald and Nakhi Johnson, who landed at Tulsa, redshirt freshman David Ojiegbe, Aden and freshman Sincere Edwards, sophomore linebackerJordan Bass and defensive backs in redshirt freshman Jaremiah Anglin Jr., redshirt sophomore Ryland Gandy and redshirt juniors in Noah Biglow, who landed at Louisiana Tech, and Tamarion Crumpley.

Pitt has four quarterbacks on its roster heading into 2025, in rising redshirt sophomores, starter Eli Holstein and walk-on David Lynch, rising redshirt freshman Julian Dugger and incoming freshman Mason Heintschel.

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