Eli Holstein, Pitt stay unbeaten with victory against North Carolina in ACC opener

Pat Narduzzi admitted to being witness to a bit of “dancing and celebrating” in Pitt’s Kenan Stadium locker room after the 34-24 victory against North Carolina.

He even made mention on his postgame interview — via 93.7 FM — of the subject he repeatedly avoided in the days leading up to the game: Pitt’s 0-7 record in Chapel Hill, N.C., before Saturday, now shoved into meaningless history.

“I made sure I mentioned it after the game in the locker room,” he said, relaying what he said to his players after they improved to 5-0 in their ACC opener. “To come down here and finally get a win, it’s been awhile.”

Then, there was this significant admission from a coach who previously insisted, at 4-0, his team hadn’t done anything.

“We have a (heckuva) football team.”

Pitt and quarterback Eli Holstein are starting to hit milestones that indicate this might be more than just another unremarkable season.

Holstein, a redshirt freshman, completed 25 of 42 passes for 381 yards and wasn’t sacked. Plus, he was his team’s leading rusher with 10 carries, 76 yards and the decisive, tiebreaking 3-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter.

“They were playing some man coverage, and nobody was really accounting for me,” he said of his willingness to run.

Meanwhile, Holstein broke a 45-year Pitt freshman single-game record for passing yards (Alex Van Pelt against West Virginia in 1989).

Perhaps even more impressive, he became the first Pitt quarterback to win his first five starts “since one Dan Marino,” as executive associate athletic director E.J. Borghetti remarked during Narduzzi’s postgame news conference.

Said Holstein: “I guess I’m in pretty good company. Hopefully, I can keep doing what he did.”

Pitt is 5-0 for the first time since 1991, but let’s not get carried away, even though Holstein was responsible for 457 of Pitt’s 523 total yards (87.4%) and all four touchdowns in his second road victory against a power conference team. When the offense stalled, Ben Sauls kicked two field goals to run his season streak to 9 for 9.

Holstein completed passes to seven players, led by running back Desmond Reid (11 catches, 155 yards, one touchdown).

Another victory for Holstein in the eyes of his teammates: He threw a pick-6 in the first quarter and took full blame for it.

“My fault,” he said. “They played zone (defense). I was kind of thinking man. I forced it, guy (UNC defensive back Kaleb Cost, who took it 84 yards) made a great play and undercut it. Bad reads.

“I have to learn from it. Bad stuff is going to happen. You have to move on. It’s not the last play. The next play is the most important play.”

“The quarterback is real good,” North Carolina coach Mack Brown said of Holstein. “Made all the difference in the world.”

Narduzzi took the adjectives a step further.

“Eli is spectacular. Threw that pick-6 early, didn’t faze him at all,” he said.

Narduzzi called the game a “complete team win,” noting the defense reached its goal of allowing only 17 points. Although North Carolina (3-3, 0-2) recorded 416 yards (147 on the ground), the Pitt defense made the most clutch play of the game.

With Pitt clinging to a 31-24 lead after the score had been tied three times at 10, 17 and 24, North Carolina was seeking a fourth tie with 9 minutes, 14 seconds to play. Facing fourth down at the Pitt 8 with less than a yard to go for a first down, Brown turned to a player he believed was his best bet — running back Omarion Hampton, the leading rusher in the ACC.

Pitt’s defense, which had no interceptions and didn’t record a sack until linebacker Kyle Louis got one with 1:11 left, stepped up when it mattered most. Hampton, who finished the game with 106 yards on the ground, crashed into the middle of the line and was stopped for no gain. It was North Carolina’s sixth play on fourth down and its fourth failure.

Middle linebacker Brandon George and Louis got credit for the stop on the official play-by-play sheet, but there were many bodies resisting Hampton’s advance.

Among them was defensive tackle Sean FitzSimmons (Central Valley), playing for the first time this season after getting hurt in training camp.

“I just did my job,” he said. “Good things happen.”

What his job?

“Cause havoc.”

After an official review, Pitt took the ball and collected six first downs before the drive stalled at the North Carolina 19. Sauls kicked a 37-yard field goal for a 34-24 lead with 2:01 remaining. Louis’ sack sealed it.

With the game on the line, Pitt’s offense burned more than seven minutes off the clock.

“You have to love that tick-tock on that drive,” Narduzzi said.

It was a departure from Pitt’s earlier tendency to score quickly. The Panthers’ first two touchdown drives in the second quarter — ending in 7- and 30-yard receptions by C.J. Lee and Pappi Williams — took 93 and 76 seconds, respectively.

After the game, Holstein talked to ESPN2 and credited everyone from Narduzzi to the equipment guys.

Aware that Pitt has won three tight games against power conference teams and finding new ways to win each week, the quarterback just smiled and said, “We like to keep it interesting.”