Pitt quarterback preview: Eli Holstein leads the room entering second season

Eli Holstein has become somewhat of a polarizing figure following what was largely a super successful first season of college football.

He was a second-year freshman, but he didn’t play during his true freshman campaign at Alabama – and he certainly didn’t look like a first-year starter during the magical start to his collegiate career.

“Ups and downs, highs and lows, definitely,” Holstein said of his first season at Pitt over the spring. “It was a great moment when I found out I was the starting quarterback, and then going through those games, those highs and lows in those games as well, starting off slow against Cincinnati and then coming back in the end. The ups and downs of the West Virginia game, coming back and winning those games. And then having a great game against UNC, breaking some records. That was a lot of fun. Then some adversity hit and I started getting into injury trouble, and just not being able to be out there with those guys, being able to play with them and not that I could really do out there on the field with them really hurt. But that’s part of the game, something that I’ve got to be able to handle and just push through and look forward to next year.”

Holstein completed 180-of-291 pass attempts (62%) for 2,228 yards with 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions, adding 340 yards (4.1 yards per carry) and three more touchdowns on the ground. And that was in just 10 appearances, including a couple of injury-shortened performances.

There were some struggles, including early on when he led fourth quarter comebacks against Cincinnati and West Virginia, but there were moments of excellence, too. It takes guts to lead a 10-point comeback in the fourth quarter of the Backyard Brawl.

It takes some serious moxie to brush off an early pick-six to lead Pitt to its first ever win against North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C. You know, while racking up 450 yards of offense and four touchdowns in the process.

He put together one of the most encouraging showings by a freshman quarterback in the country, ranked third in passing yards and total offense per game and fifth in passing touchdowns – first in passing yards and third in passing touchdowns among freshmen quarterbacks in the Power Four.

A 7-0 start doesn’t happen by accident.

Now, of course, it wasn’t a perfect season by any means. He suffered a couple of apparent head injuries and suffered a season-ending leg injury in the first quarter of a late-season game against Louisville.

And when defenses started to adjust, dropping eight men into coverage (and winning upfront with three-man rushes, which is a different problem for another day) and forcing Holstein to pick apart defenses, he struggled. He started trying to do too much. And while he was a freshman who dealt with injuries and the first season of playing college football, he didn’t have the strongest spring. That’s not a problem, per se, but how he’s able to build upon his success with offensive coordinator Kade Bell and adjust to what defenses throw his way will likely make or break the 2025 season.

Holstein isn’t shying away from the pressure, though, either. He’s embracing his role as the leader of the offense.

“I’ve had guys tell me, ‘Hey, I need you to be on me this year.’ And I told them, I’m gonna be on you, but you’re not gonna like me sometimes,” Holstein said. “I gotta be honest with you, I gotta tell you what you’re doing wrong. You might throw a punch at me, we might tussle, but if that’s what you want me to do, you’re gonna hear what you don’t want to like sometimes.”

Holstein is back, but there’s been a lot of turnover in the quarterbacks room. Nate Yarnell transferred to Texas State over the winter, and Julian Dugger transferred to Washington State following the spring season.

Pitt added Mason Heintschel from the high school ranks, and the Oregon, Ohio native was able to be on the sidelines for the GameAbove Sports Bowl in December.

“My head was definitely spinning,” Heintschel said in the spring. “Coming in, I didn’t know any of the offense, we’d gone over it a little bit, but I hadn’t learned it very much. So, just going over the offense and all the play calls, it definitely made my head spin a little bit. But that’s why we’re here now, that’s why I’m here early, just to start learning that and get more comfortable with that for sure.”

Heintschel was a revelation this spring, impressing the coaching staff and his teammates with his maturity and the way he picked up the playbook almost instantly. The Panthers added former Western Carolina starter Cole Gonzales (who spent the spring at Oklahoma), but I wouldn’t be surprised if Heintschel emerges as the backup option.

It’s an interesting room, one that includes a quarterback who earned ACC Rookie of the Week five times last season, a quarterback who starred in Bell’s scheme at WCU and an early impact early enrollee. There’s a solid mix of experience and expectation in Year 2 of Bell’s offense.