Football: Pitt prepares for talented Virginia Tech team

The Pitt football team began preparing for Virginia Tech Monday. The Panthers enter week seven of the college football season 3-1 overall and 2-1 in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Pitt faces the Hokies of Virginia Tech, a fellow member of the ACC’s Coastal Division.

No. 24 Virginia Tech (5-1, 2-0 ACC) currently leads the Coastal Division and enters Saturday’s game in Blacksburg, Va., on a five-game winning streak. The biggest news of the day Monday, though, was that Pitt starting quarterback Tom Savage has been cleared to play after he suffered a mild concussion against Virginia.

In other injury news, two starters on the defensive side of the ball are in limbo when it comes to their status for Saturday — starting redshirt senior middle linebacker Shane Gordon and redshirt junior defensive end Bryan Murphy — according to head coach Paul Chryst. 

“With Murphy and Shane, we don’t know how they feel,” Chryst said. “They both did some running and other things last week, so we’ll see. We had them doing some stuff, but no contact.”

Beyond those two, Chryst says the Panthers are as healthy as they’ve been in a while. 

Meanwhile, the road matchup is just the second for Pitt outside of Heinz Field this season. The only other experience Pitt has had on the road this year was a trip to Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium, which was sparsely populated at best. Virginia Tech, a perennial ACC contender, should provide the Panthers with a more hostile game-day atmosphere.

“With my past experiences, obviously when you go on the road and are on offense, crowd noise is going to be a factor,” Chryst said. “We have the opportunity to go earn some experience, and our guys have to be able to handle it — and we will try to help them.”

Another factor entering Saturday’s game is the Hokies’ five-game winning streak. Virginia Tech opened its season with a 35-10 loss to No. 1 Alabama but has not lost since.  

“They’re finding different ways to win,” Chryst said. “They’re playing pretty well right now, and we’ve got a heck of a challenge.”

The challenges posed by the Hokies, offensively at least, reside in the form of quarterback Logan Thomas. Although he posted four interceptions while playing poorly in Virginia Tech’s loss to Pitt at Heinz Field last season, Chryst expects the 6-foot-6 dual-threat quarterback to play up to his billing.

“He’s obviously a tremendous athlete and talented quarterback,” Chryst said. “If he’s going, their team is going. It’ll be a challenge for us. He’s a good player.”

Overall, the Panthers defense has to contend with a spread offense that’s putting up nearly 24 points per game this season. As Chryst repeats just about every week, he believes that assignment-sound football is key for the Panthers to achieve success — next to tackling well.

“Each opponent presents different opportunities, and we’ll certainly be challenged this week,” Chryst said. “I like where our guys are at, but we’ll find out.”

Defensively, the Hokies enter Saturday’s game allowing their opposition to score just 16 points per game. The mark ranks No. 12 in the nation. 

“They’ve got really good corners,” Chryst said. “Therefore, if you have good corners and a good secondary, it frees them up to do a little bit more and bring more guys in pressure.”

Speaking of pressure, the Panthers’ three-game win streak may find itself in jeopardy, as Pitt faces its second ranked opponent of the season. The first was Florida State, a team that beat Pitt 41-13 in the first week of the season.

While Pitt has yet to accomplish an extended winning streak under Chryst, the Panthers’ head coach doesn’t see such streaks as much more than a slight boost to the team’s collective confidence. 

“I thought going in that working on truly genuine confidence is something you have to go out and earn,” Chryst said. “We’ve got guys working and gaining confidence, but I don’t think anyone feels like they’ve arrived yet. I would be really disappointed if that was the case. I don’t believe it at all. The game makes all of us honest.”