Eli Holstein's high school coach says mix of humility, confidence set Pitt QB on right path

One of the first to speak to Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein on Saturday after his successful introduction to college football was David Brewerton, his coach at Zachary (La.) High School.

“We talked after the game for a while,” Brewerton said. “It was good to hear his voice.”

Brewerton’s praise for everything Holstein had done while leading Pitt to victory in its opener went almost unnoticed by the not-yet-20-year-old quarterback.

“He just wanted to talk about the win,” Brewerton said. “I’m talking to him, ‘Eli, man, you had a heck of a game individually for your first start. I’m just proud of you.’

“And he immediately began talking about some of the players he has and the weapons around him. But that’s classic Eli.”

Brewerton said a unique mix of character traits helped Holstein lead Zachary to a 2021 state championship, throw for 7,014 yards and 62 touchdowns as a three-year starter and remain humble while Nick Saban was waiting outside his classroom to speak to him.

“He really comes across as a guy who’s full of humility,” Brewerton said, “and also a guy who has the confidence you want in your starting quarterback.”

When Brewerton heard Holstein put his head down and shed a tear at the news that he would be Pitt’s starting quarterback, the coach wasn’t surprised. He knows how much finding success means to his former player.

“I know what kind of preparation he has put in his entire life for what the country got to see Saturday,” Brewerton said. “Anybody who thinks, ‘Oh, the freshman just got a chance and went in there and just had a lucky day,’ they don’t know Eli.

“Eli has been preparing for that day since he was a young kid. He’s always wanted to be on that stage of being a starting Division I quarterback and leading his team, and that’s what you got to see on Saturday.

“I’m sure the emotions were there of a dream realized.”

Success on a big stage is nothing new to the redshirt freshman who came to Pittsburgh from Zachary, a town of 20,000 people. “Five-thousand are here on Friday nights,” Brewerton said. “Big-time football in a small town.

“Many towns across our state shut down on Friday night to get ready for high school football. We take a lot of pride in that.”

As a junior, Holstein led Zachary to a 15-0 record and a state championship in Louisiana’s largest classification, winning MVP of the title game that was played in New Orleans at the Caesars Superdome.

“It doesn’t get any bigger than that,” Brewerton said.

For more than 15 minutes Tuesday, Brewerton had nothing but praise for his former quarterback.

“Great athletic ability … strong arm … all the tangibles and intangibles that you’re looking for in a quarterback.”

The coach was ready to hang up the phone and get to his radio show — yes, that’s how big high school football is at Zachary — when he knew he left out one important news item.

“There’s probably one more piece to that puzzle that certainly needs to get added,” he said. “I’ve never seen him make a B in the classroom. He is an outstanding student, graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA and I know he’s doing really, really well in college, as well.”

For all those reasons, Brewerton said Holstein had no trouble stepping into the varsity huddle as a sophomore.

“He’s always had that little something with him that you could tell he was going to be one of the great ones,” he said. “It’s almost like having another coach out there on the field. His ability to read defenses and his ability to understand what was going on and what we were trying to do. He just did a tremendous job understanding the philosophy of our football team, and we gave him a lot of freedom to do so.”

Holstein was the third Zachary quarterback to win all-state honors under Brewerton. All three won state championships.

“He was following two guys who had skins on the wall,” Brewerton said. “But Eli was the most prototypical-looking quarterback — 6-foot-4, 230, rocket arm. My other guys were more dual-threat quarterbacks. Eli is much more of a pocket-passer-type guy and looks like a high-level, Power 5 quarterback.”

Pitt wide receiver Kenny Johnson spoke Tuesday about how Holstein gathered some of his pass catchers inside the South Side practice facility at night this winter. The security guard opened the door for them, and they ran routes with the aim of Holstein getting used to their individual route-running characteristics.

“When I think of a pro, he’s a pro. He had a paper. We had routes he had planned to run. We just kept building that connection. It’s really just trust,” said Johnson, who caught seven of his eight targets Saturday.

Brewerton said Holstein did the same at Zachary.

“One of those guys who would pick up the receiving corps on the weekends, and they would come to the stadium and spend a lot of extra time throwing the ball around and working on timing,” he said. “I think the rest of the guys on the team saw that. I think they respected that.”

Brewerton said “a constant line of coaches” visited the high school, hoping to lure Holstein to their university. They left impressed, the coach said.

“When you sit down and you talk with Eli, you can tell what things are important to him in his life,” he said. “He’s very close with his family. He would speak very highly about the school. He would speak very highly about the program, about his teammates.”

Brewerton said the two of them spoke before he chose Alabama and as he was choosing to transfer. He said Holstein decided to leave Alabama before Saban announced his retirement.

“We always talked about what the best fit would be for him, what he wanted to do as a player and as a person. I talked to him on and off throughout the whole process, and he seems to be very happy (at Pitt) and is enjoying his experience up there,” he said. “We’re certainly very proud of him around here, no doubt.”