Pittsburgh is still perfect — but it had to sweat for every point of it. The Panthers survived a wild track meet on the road Friday night, outlasting Virginia Tech 35-33 at Lane Stadium to push their record to 5-0, the best start of Pat Narduzzi's tenure in Oak Hill.

It wasn't pretty for long stretches. Virginia Tech piled up 499 total yards to Pitt's 295 and controlled the clock for most of the night, with quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer slinging it for 434 yards and receiver Que'Sean Brown hauling in seven catches for 147 yards and a score, according to the Fox Sports box score. But the Hokies turned the ball over four times, and Pitt didn't turn it over at all — a margin that proved decisive in front of a sold-out crowd of 65,632.

Hicks Delivers, Heintschel Exits

Receiver Cataurus Hicks did the most with the least, hauling in just three passes but turning two of them into touchdowns, while running back Ja'Kyrian Turner added a rushing score on 14 carries for 65 yards. The bigger concern for Pitt fans: starting quarterback Mason Heintschel, who entered the night fresh off a 423-yard, three-touchdown outing against NC State, left the game with an injury and finished a limited 10-of-18 for 113 yards and one touchdown. ESPN's game notes flagged the exit directly, writing that Pitt "loses Heintschel to injury, but outlasts Virginia Tech" — the Panthers' medical staff and coaching staff have not detailed the severity.

Pitt's defense did the heavy lifting down the stretch. After trailing on the scoreboard for stretches of the first half, the Panthers scored 14 points in the second quarter to seize control, per TheScore's game recap, and then held Virginia Tech scoreless in the third quarter despite the Hokies' statistical dominance. Virginia Tech outscored Pitt 19-21 in the second half overall, but it wasn't enough to erase the deficit built on four costly giveaways.

The win keeps Pitt as one of the last unbeaten teams in the ACC and validates a 2026 breakout built almost entirely around Heintschel's right arm — the sophomore has now thrown for at least three touchdowns in all but one outing this season, including a six-touchdown rout of Bucknell. Virginia Tech, meanwhile, drops to 4-1 and will need to shore up a defense that allowed 35 points despite forcing four turnovers of its own.

Both programs now turn to the second half of their ACC slates. Pitt is slated to host North Carolina on October 10 at Acrisure Stadium, where the Panthers' unbeaten run — and Heintschel's health — will be the headline storylines all week, per ESPN's scoreboard coverage of the night's games.