'You just know:' Holstein leads Panthers to wild rally past West Virginia

For the second straight week, Pitt didn't blink. Facing a 10-point deficit with less than five minutes remaining in the 107th iteration of the program's legendary rivalry with West Virginia, the Panthers never lost faith and always thought they could rebound because of who they have under center

Eli Holstein, the redshirt freshman transfer from Alabama, led the Panthers on two straight scoring drives in the fourth quarter, each of which covered 70-plus yards in six plays or less, to lead the Panthers to a miraculous 38-34 come-from-behind victory over the Mountaineers. 

"It takes a unit to get it done. It's not just one player. But Eli has done an unbelievable job in the three games and he's 3-0 as a starter," Pat Narduzzi said after the game. "He goes from playing his first home game as a starter to being on the road in a different environment and coming home, playing in a Backyard Brawl, which is not an easy one to play in, and finds a way to get it done." 

The first scoring drive of the fourth quarter concluded when Holstein threw a 40-yard pass to Daejon Reynolds, who came down with the catch in between three West Virginia defenders. It was Reynolds' first catch of the season, but Kenny Johnson said afterward it's not anything new. 

"That's a normal catch," Johnson, who caught five passes for 79 yards, said. "Dae-Dae makes that 100 times out of 100 times. Getting held, getting hung on, it doesn't matter, he's going to make the catch."

Just watch:

But to set up the final scoring drive, the defense had to come up with one more stop and they knew if they got Holstein the ball back, the game would be over. So, after giving up two quick runs, Jimmy Scott pulled down Garrett Greene for an 11-yard loss to force a West Virginia punt.

"We knew if we got Eli the ball, and the rest of the offense the ball, we were in good hands, we were ready to roll," Brandon George said. "So, knowing that, knowing that they are going to score and we're going to have to come on the field and win the football game, that's how we attack it."

Seven plays later, after Holstein came within inches of a five-yard touchdown run, Derrick Davis Jr. punched it into the end zone with a one-yard run on a handoff by Nate Yarnell, who was in the game after Holstein had his helmet ripped off on the previous play.

Kyle Louis secured the win by picking off a Garrett Greene pass with four seconds remaining.

Holstein completed 21 of his 30 pass attempts for 301 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. He also rushed for 59 yards on 14 attempts. But in the toughest moments, when Pitt's back was against the wall, Holstein came through. He completed five of his final six pass attempts for 100 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed six times for 67 yards on the final two drives to move the chains and put the Panthers in scoring position. If not for West Virginia pulling him down for five sacks, Holstein would've finished with 88 rushing yards.

When I asked Holstein after the game what led to him using his legs more in the fourth quarter, much like he did last week against Cincinnati, his answer was simple: "It was time to just take what they were giving me." 

And take he did.

After West Virginia scored to go up 10 with 4 minutes, 55 seconds left in the game, Holstein scrambled for 10 yards. Then, after Johnson was called for a false start, Holstein picked up 24 more yards to get down to West Virginia's 46. He then found Konata Mumpfield for an 11-yard gain before two back-breaking holding penalties put them in a 2nd-and-30 situation. But Holstein wasn't done yet.

He dropped back and found Reynolds in the back of the end zone. But just like his teammates trusted him, Holstein trusted his teammates.

"You gotta trust your receivers, and I feel like I wasn't doing that in the first half," Holstein said. "End of the third quarter, especially the end of the fourth quarter, I started trusting my guys and we were able to go out and make some plays."

Holstein did the same thing a week ago in Cincinnati. He started using his legs and finding wide-open receivers in the secondary. While this win was a little more gutsy, there's something inside of Holstein that allows him to show up in the biggest moments. He showed it on the road in a hostile environment and he showed it Saturday night in one of the biggest games of the season. It was like he flipped a switch.

"Honestly, he did, right?" Narduzzi asked. "I don't see it. He just turned a switch on."

That trust, that belief in a young quarterback isn't something that develops in an instant. It can't be turned on like a switch. It develops over time and multiple players have said that it built throughout the summer and into the fall and it's grown consistently since then. However, George said he started to realize what Holstein was capable of by just speaking with him.

"Sometimes you just know," George said. "When you talk to somebody and they show the amount of confidence, the amount of will, the amount of grit, when you talk to them, that's how you know. That's how I knew he was going to be a good football player, a great teammate and a great brother for us."

But just how much confidence does the defense have in a quarterback who's only played in three collegiate games?

"On a scale of 10, I got like a 15," Louis said with a chuckle. "Eli is a dawg, the offense and their scheme is a whole other thing, that's like crazy hard to stop, especially when it's like tempo, hurry-up offense, you know they are going to pass the ball, they not really looking to run the ball, you know they are going to spread the offense out and gun sling it. But, on top of that, Eli is not scared, he's not hesitant. Even when the plays weren't working, Eli was breaking 300-pounders off his neck, running for like 15 yards. You don't see that out of other quarterbacks. You definitely don't see that out of other quarterbacks. He's got that dawg mentality."

However as Narduzzi mentioned, one player doesn't make a team and while Holstein put up another mind-boggling stat line for a redshirt freshman, he didn't do it without Desmond Reid's two touchdown catches, Mumpfield's six catches for 76 yards, Maverick Gracio's blocked punt, Louis' and Donovan McMillon's 26 combined tackles or Rasheem Biles' 12 total tackles and two TFLs.

So when he was asked what has led to his early success as a collegiate starter, he put all of the success on his teammates.

"I've got some great teammates, some great leaders on this team, great coaching too," Holstein said. "I got a lot of people that trust in me and believe in me. They talk about how much trust and belief they have in me that I'm gonna be able to go out there and make the plays that they need me to make. They put me in the position to make those plays and I just have trust myself that I'm going to be able to make those plays."

Consider this one, mission accomplished.

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Pitt (3-0, 0-0) will host Youngstown State (1-2, 0-0, Missouri Valley) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday at Acrisure. I will have you covered!

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