In five college seasons at three different schools, Holden Geriner threw 21 passes. Not 21 touchdowns. Twenty one attempts. Total. Last night he came off the bench and threw the one that beat Virginia Tech and kept the Pittsburgh Panthers undefeated. Geriner is from Savannah, Georgia. At Benedictine Military School he won a Class 4A state championship and was the MVP of the title game, and he threw for 3,377 yards and 36 touchdowns as a senior. He finished high school with more than 7,100 passing yards. He was a four star recruit. The 18th ranked quarterback in the country in the 2022 class. Then he went to Auburn and played in eight games in three years. Then he transferred to Texas State and played in three games in a season, and threw a pass in exactly one of them. Nine completions. Twenty one attempts. 116 yards. One interception. That is a five year college career. He came to Pitt this season as a redshirt senior and he knew exactly what the job was. Back up Mason Heintschel and help raise two true freshmen quarterbacks. A former Pitt quarterback named Nate Yarnell, who had been his teammate at Texas State, told him he would love it there. He said this in August, before any of it. I want to be a coach on the field as a player. And this. Not getting as many opportunities in the past drives me forward. Pitt fell behind Virginia Tech 14-0. Then 24-14. Then Heintschel took a hit, walked off to the locker room, and did not come back. So the guy who had thrown 21 passes in five years jogged out there. Early in the fourth quarter Geriner found Cam Hicks for 29 yards and a touchdown. That was the last point Pittsburgh scored all night. Virginia Tech came back. They got a safety. They got a touchdown. They ran out of field. Final score 35-33. Which means the pass Holden Geriner threw was the entire difference. The rest of that box score is almost funny. Virginia Tech outgained Pitt 499 yards to 295 and lost. The Hokies turned it over four times. Pitt did not turn it over once. Pittsburgh is 5-0. And the quarterback who got them through the fourth quarter of that game had not thrown a pass that mattered since he was in high school in Savannah. Be honest about the hard part. Mason Heintschel was playing well and nobody in that building is celebrating a leg injury, and one throw does not erase five years of holding a clipboard. But a quarterback who has spent his entire adult life as somebody else's backup said out loud, in August, that not getting chances is the thing that drives him. Last night somebody finally handed him one. Fourth quarter. On the road. Undefeated season sitting right there. He threw it for a touchdown.