Inside The Panthers

Pitt Football QB Signee Joins Bowl Practices

Pitt Panthers football quarterback signee joined bowl practices.

Dominic Campbell

Pitt Football 2025 Signee quarterback Mason Heintschel
Pitt Football 2025 Signee quarterback Mason Heintschel / Courtesy of Pitt Athletics
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PITTSBURGH -- The Pitt Panthers have spent this week practicing ahead of their upcoming matchup vs. Toledo in the GameAbove Sports Bowl in Detroit, with a new player in attendance.

Quarterback Mason Heintschel, a member of the Pitt Class of 2025, joined the team for their practices at Ford Field, home of the Detroit Lions, where they'll play their bowl game. He was wearing the No. 10 red jersey in warm-ups.

Heintschel played for Clay High School in Oregon, Ohio, which is near Toledo, and only an hour drive south from Detroit.

He starred for his high school, throwing for 7,322 yards and 79 touchdowns in his career there. He had a sensational senior season, completing 188-of-272 passes, 69.1%, for 2,444 yards and 35 touchdowns, while also rushing for 770 yards and six touchdowns.

Heintschel led Clay to the 2024 NLL Cardinal Division championship as a senior, ending a 42-year title drought. They finished 8-3 on the season and advanced to the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) Division II, Region 6 playoffs.

He committed to Pitt back on March 24, making him their second commtiment in the Class of 2025. He also made his official visit from June 6-8, the first weekend for official visitors for Pitt.

Heintschel is a consensus three-star recruit, with 247Sports rating him the No. 42 quarterback and No. 28 in Ohio, On3 rating him No. 78 at his position and No. 55 in the state, ESPN ranking him the No. 47 quarterback and No. 52 in Ohio and Rivals giving him a 5.6 rating.

He signed his National Letter of Intent on Dec. 4, marking the start of the early signing period, and is currently the only incoming freshman quarterback in the Class of 2025.

He is also an early enrollee and will join the team for the next semester, participating in spring practices. He is not eligible for this bowl game and is gaining experience with the team.

Pitt offensive coordinator Kade Bell praised Heintschel as a "steal" and that it helped that they were the first Power 4 team to offer him.

Bell also said that some schools tried to come in late and flip his commitment, but that Heintschel stayed loyal and saw the success Pitt had on offense, which is what suits him going forward.

"I think two things, but that just who Mason is also," Bell said of Heintschel on National Signing Day. "Just being around the kid and talking to the people in the school and just his family, the kid's a loyal kid. Like I said, the kid's a competitor.

"We gave him his first Power Four offer and that meant something to him. We believed in him when some teams didn't and coach [Narduzzi] believed in him when some teams didn't and that's why we took his commitment so early.

"It's not like he's a kid that we waited 'til we brought him in the summer and brought him in and all that. He came up on an unofficial visit and he loved the offense, he loved what coach Duzz was about and what this program was about and he saw himself here at Pitt and I think for him, man, for us going after him and telling him that he was the guy we wanted, I think that meant a lot and obviously, the success we did have this year with the quarterback having the ball in his hands and the way I felt like we turned it around and put up some good numbers at quarterback, it kind of showed that, "Hey, offensively, we build this thing right, great things can happen," and he wanted to be a part of that."

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Dominic Campbell
DOMINIC CAMPBELL

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