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Oct 25, 2025; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA; Pittsburgh Panthers quarterback Mason Heintschel (6) warms up before the game against the North Carolina State Wolfpack at Acrisure Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

Tracking Each Pitt Freshmen's Redshirt Status

Originally posted on Pittsburgh Panthers on SI
By Mitchell Corcoran | Last updated Nov 6, 2025 1:00 PM ET

PITTSBURGH — The Pitt Panthers are in the midst of their final bye week of the season. And with just three games remaining, this is a good time to check in and see the redshirt statuses of all the Pitt football freshmen.

For those unaware, redshirting means that a student athlete, in any collegiate sport, opts not to participate in a season to maintain a year of eligibility for the future. This occurs mostly with freshmen because many of them are unlikely to play in their first season.

However, the redshirt eligibility rules vary by sport. In college football, players are allotted four game appearances before losing their redshirt, no matter how many snaps they've played. Once they appear in a fifth game, even if it's just for one snap, their redshirt is no longer eligible to be used for that season. Conference championships, bowl games and College Football Playoff games do not count towards that four-game total.

In this exercise, there are three tiers of redshirt statuses: freshmen who have already burned their redshirt, those who are close to losing redshirt and those who will very likely use their redshirt.

Of Pitt's 30 true freshmen, eight cannot redshirt, three are close to losing theirs and 19 will very likely use their redshirt.

Burned Redshirts

DB Josh Guerrier — 9 games
K Trey Butkowski — 9 games
DB Shawn Lee Jr. — 9 games
WR Tony Kinsler — 8 games
RB Ja'Kyrian Turner — 8 games
LB Emmanuel Taylor — 7 games
WR Bryce Yates — 7 games
QB Mason Heintschel — 6 games

There are a lot of familiar names on this list if you've been following Pitt football this year.

Josh Guerrier, Trey Butkowski and Shawn Lee Jr. are the only freshmen to play in all nine games this season. Of course, Mason Heintschel and Ja'Kyrian Turner are two other notable names. They've each had big games, with Heintschel's being a 423-yard and three touchdown performance against NC State, and Turner's being a 127-yard rushing game against Stanford last week.

John Hefti-Imagn Images

Tony Kinser, Emmanuel Taylor and Bryce Yates have also lost their redshirts. They may be lesser-known players to some, as they've all primarily played as either a backup, on special teams, or both.

Kinser has one catch for four yards across eight games, Taylor has five tackles and a half tackle for a loss in seven contests and Yates has eight catches for 185 yards and a touchdown, also in seven games. The average snaps per game between the three players is 12.5.

Could Redshirt

TE Max Hunt — 3 games
DL Trevor Sommers — 3 games
WR Cam Sapp — 2 games

Three freshmen are on the fringe of losing their redshirt this season.

It isn't surprising to see Max Hunt here, especially after Pat Narduzzi praised him during fall camp. Hunt has just one catch for 20 yards and has played 21 snaps across three games against Central Michigan, NC State and Stanford.

Sommers has played fewer snaps than Hunt, with 19, and has one total tackle against Boston College. Sapp has the fewest snaps of the group, with 13, and he made one catch for seven yards against Duquesne.

Should Redshirt

DB Cole Woodson — 1 game
DL JuJu Anderson — 1 game
LB Justin Thompson — 1 game
OL Akram Elnagmi — 1 game
DL Ben Kauffman — 1 game
OL Torian Chester — 1 game
LS Henry Searcy — 1 game
QB Beau Jackson — 0 games
RB Synkwan Smith — 0 games
RB Jaylin Brown — 0 games
LB John Wetzel — 0 games
LB Emory Fluhr — 0 games
DB Valdez Stuvaints — 0 games
DL Charlie Donehue — 0 games
DL Denim Cook — 0 games
OL Shep Turk — 0 games
OL Jordan Fields — 0 games
OL Josh Nindl — 0 games
P Kaemon Tijerina — 0 games

Unsurprisingly, this is the largest group of the Pitt freshmen. Most freshmen around the country fall in this tier. Pitt has a decent number of walk-ons, and it would be rare to see a former walk-on burn a redshirt as a true freshman — that includes Butkowski. The Panthers brought in 21 recruits, meaning that they added nine walk-ons in the offseason.

Cole Woodson, JuJu Anderson, Justin Thompson, Akram Elnagmi, Torian Chester and Henry Searcy have all at least appeared in one game, with 12 freshmen who have yet to play a snap.

This article first appeared on Pittsburgh Panthers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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