Reflecting on Pitt's Top Regular Season Moments of 2025

The Pitt Panthers' regular season ended in a disappointing way, losing to Miami by 21 points at home. This means Pitt is eliminated from any ACC Championship and College Football Playoff hopes.

On a slightly brighter side, this season is still an improvement over last. The Panthers will finish the regular season 8-4, compared to 7-5 from last season. Despite losing the final game, this year's Panthers also finished the season much stronger than last, winning three of their final five games, versus ending the 2024 season with a five-game losing streak.

This was a long season that saw a lot of highs and lows. Here's a look back at some of the best moments.

Panthers Start 2-0

The Panthers started their regular season by blowing out Duquesne 61-9 and then Central Michigan by 45-17.

Not much surprise here, Pitt beat two teams they were supposed to. It was fun seeing Pitt play against a fellow Pittsburgh team for their home opener, though.

Star running back Desmond Reid also started the game and his season with a house call punt return against Duquesne.

Mason Heintschel Emerges

What happened in the next two games doesn't need to be talked about. But maybe just for context.

After a good start to the season, Pitt had two brutal losses. The first to West Virginia in the Backyard Brawl. The next was to Louisville in the first game of ACC play. Both games saw sizeable leads blown. The Louisville game at least had a Rasheem Biles pick-six.

Head coach Pat Narduzzi and offensive coordinator Kade Bell were under a lot of fire. In a shocking move, Narduzzi made the decision to bench trusted redshirt sophomore quarterback Eli Holstein for a true freshman.

That true freshman was Ohio native Mason Heintschel. He got his first start against Boston College, in which he led a 48-7 blowout victory. Heintschel passed for 323 yards and four touchdowns.

In his second game ever starting, Heintschel had to go against the then-ranked Florida State Seminoles in Tallahassee. Pitt ended up winning 34-31, proving that they're a different team than just a few games ago.

The next three games were Pitt wins across the board. The Oct. 25 game against NC State saw Heintschel break school records with over 400 passing yards in a blowout victory. Wide receivers Kenny Johnson, Raphael "Poppi" Williams and Cataurus "Blue" Hicks all showed their talent with touchdown catches. Running backs Desmond Reid and true freshman Ja'Kyrian "Boosie" Turner also got in on the action with touchdowns of their own.

During the whole season, Pitt's defense was playing great. The "Shark" linebacker duo of Kyle Louis and Rasheem Biles lived up to their hype. Even when they missed games with injury, defenders such as Rashad Battle and Braylan Lovelace stepped up big.

LB Rasheem Bile — Nov 15, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers linebacker Rasheem Biles (3) reacts after scoring a pick-six touchdown against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish during the third quarter at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

College GameDay Comes to Pittsburgh

Pitt's success had them ranked at No. 22 by the time they were hosting No. 9 Notre Dame. This excitement resulted in ESPN's College GameDay choosing Pittsburgh as its show location for the week.

It was a sold-out matchup that saw a rare occurrence of Acrisure Stadium packed for a Pitt game. All eyes were on the Panthers.

Unfortunately, Notre Dame embarrassed Pitt in their home stadium, and on national television. Still, it was a very exciting day that saw Pitt be recognized for their turnaround in the season. All-around football legend Aaron Donald also finally got his jersey retired by the Panthers during halftime.

Boosie's Big Run

After the Notre Dame loss, Pitt was still in shape to at least make the ACC championship. Their path started with going down to Atlanta and beating No. 16 Georgia Tech.

After such a tough loss, many Pitt fans were nervous for this game. Not to mention that Reid, who had been dealing with injuries all season, was ruled out again.

This ended up being the craziest game of the season for the Panthers. They went up 28-0 in just the first half. Pitt was playing electric offense and the defense held Georgia Tech's Heisman candidate quarterback to one of his worst games of the season.

Of course, Georgia Tech fought back. Pitt got a huge pick-six, but a bizarre decision to fake a punt on fourth down let Georgia Tech right back in the game. Pitt eventually had the ball up 35-28, but the offense hadn't been able to get anything going in the second half.

That was when Boosie Turner, the true freshman backup running back, made his name known. He broke out for a 56-yard touchdown run to officially put the game away as a Panthers road win.

.@Jakyrian_Turner with the 56-yard TD‼️

19 rushes, 190 yards in the game‼️

📺 ESPN

Pitt 42, Georgia Tech 28 pic.twitter.com/XyVpjhK3Hv
— Pitt Football (@Pitt_FB) November 23, 2025

Turner was all-around great this game. Along with the touchdown, he rushed for a total of 201 yards, plus 12 receiving yards.

This win, unfortunately, wasn't enough to send Pitt to the ACC Championship. Despite the disappointing ending to the season, there's still a lot of great moments to look back on and build on for the future.

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