Pitt OC Breaks Down Mason Heintschel's High School Recruitment

PITTSBURGH — True freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel has captured the hearts of the Pitt Panthers fanbase with his maturity, confidence and, of course, his play on the gridiron.

Hientschel's popularity has rocketed ever since becoming the Panthers' starter over a month ago and leading his team to a 5-0 record. But he really hit the national spotlight when he appeared on former NFL head coach, turned Barstool Sports personality, Jon Gruden's podcast, 'Gruden Goes Long' during the bye week.

On the show, Heintschel was asked how he ended up at Pitt as such an underrecruited player.

"It was a tough process, for sure," Heintschel said. "I was a very underrecruited guy coming out of high school. It's tough when you think he can play at the next level, at a high level. I'm very fortunate for this staff to come and find me."

Heintschel's only other offers were from Akron, Bowling Green, Coastal Carolina, Kent State, Liberty, Ohio and Toledo — likely due to where he grew up in a small Ohio town named Oregon.

For reference, Oregon's population of just under 20,000 people, meaning that Heintschel grew up in a town over 15 times smaller than the city of Pittsburgh.

His alma mater, Clay High School, had its first winning season since 2008 in Heintschel's senior year. Heintschel also led Clay to its first division championship in 42 years.

Now, his 1,547 passing yards, 64.1% completion percentage and 12 touchdowns have left many wondering, including Gruden, 'How did this kid fly under the radar?'

Pitt's offensive coordinator Kade Bell broke down the recruiting process and how he found his diamond in the rough quarterback.

A Peek Behind the Curtain

Nov 1, 2025; Stanford, California, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Mason Heintschel (6) passes against the Stanford Cardinal during the second quarter at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Hefti-Imagn Images | John Hefti-Imagn Images

Bell's system for recruiting quarterbacks is similar to a filtration process, where he receives information on a large number of recruits from all around the country and collaborates with the offensive staff to whittle down the list until he finds his guy. It's a system that he's been doing since coaching under his father at Western Carolina.

The process starts when Bell receives tape from coaches in different areas around the country. He and his assistant watch every recruit, then decide which ones they want to bring to the rest of the offensive staff.

From there, the staff will provide their input on each recruit, find the ones they like the most, and then finally bring in Pat Narduzzi for his input.

"I want us all to have an opinion," Bell said. "We're all going to see football differently. I might like a player that coach JJ [Laster] or coach [Jeremy] Darveau doesn't like. But we put a rating system together that rates them all. A lot of times, it's funny when people got different opinions. But when everybody's on the same page, when everybody sees the same thing we all see, a lot of times it's right."

Bell added that as part of his recruiting process, he likes to wait and watch a quarterback's film starting in their junior year of high school. And he said something that might have hurt Heintschel was the fact that he was a "late bloomer."

"I think going into his sophomore year, he was only 175-180 pounds, 6-foot and a half," Bell said. "And then he kind of just grew. Now he's close to 6-foot-2, 215-210 pounds. So a lot of it is being a late bloomer. A lot of it is him playing multiple sports. He wasn't going to all the camps. He wasn't doing all that stuff promoting himself."

But when Bell broke down the film, he knew that Heintschel was his guy.

"We didn't care that he didn't have big offers," Bell said. "When it came down to it, we watched his film and we loved him. He fit what we wanted to do, and he was the type of guy that we were looking for. And we were happy to get him."

What Stood Out About Heintschel?

Star ratings, historically, have been reliable when projecting how good a high school recruit could be at the college level. But they are not immune to outliers or flat-out incorrect analysis.

"I don't care about stars," Bell said. "I don't care about what offers you have in the O-staff room. We don't talk about that at all as an offensive staff. We watch everybody together to make sure that we're all on the same page and that we all see it the same."

Heintschel has shown to have a big arm, big enough to break the Pitt record for longest passing touchdown in Acrisure Stadium history, an accurate arm that has completed 64% of his attempts and some wheels to escape the pocket if necessary.

But Heintschel also has some intangibles that not every young quarterback possesses. That would be his maturity and confidence, and anybody can recognize that when he speaks.

"He's a natural-born leader," said veteran right tackle Ryan Baer. "Ever since he got here, just being in the huddle with him, he doesn't stutter. He's ready. He knows he belongs there, which is rare for a young guy. You don't see any worry in him. He doesn't let the lights get too bright."

"It's special," Bell said. "I think that's what separates him from a lot of young quarterbacks. Obviously, he's talented. He's got the athletic ability, he's tough, he's got the quick release, he's got the arm. But the mental part of the game, the preparation, and just the will to want to be great, that's what's hard to find."

National Spotlight on Heintschel

Pitt will play its biggest game of the season, and perhaps the biggest game of Heintschel's life, against No. 9 Notre Dame — despite what Narduzzi thinks.

All eyes will be on Heintschel. Acrisure Stadium has already been sold out — which means over three times the population of Hientschel's hometown will be in attendance. The game will be nationally televised on ABC and ESPN's College GameDay will host its pregame show from outside the stadium.

Heintschel has all of a sudden gone from an overlooked small town kid searching for an opportunity to becoming the face of a Power Four program in the hunt for a conference championship and a College Football Playoff spot in less than a year.

This spot may be too overwhelming for many 18-year-old true freshmen quarterbacks, but for Heintschel, his coaches and teammates couldn't have more confidence in him.

"He practices every day like it's a game," Bell said. "He don't go through the motions. You watch him drop back with his feet. You watch him go through individuals, everything is like the last drive of the Super Bowl. He drops every play like it's a game. And so when a guy prepares like that, and a guy puts the work in, it makes you feel really confident throwing the football because you know that he wants the ball in his hands, and he's ready to go."

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