Barnes Burner: Saturday’s game against Virginia Tech most critical yet for Pitt

Pitt football heads to Blacksburg, Va., this weekend for a noon kickoff Saturday in Lane Stadium against the No. 24 Virginia Tech Hokies. Pitt’s three-game wining streak may find itself in jeopardy against a Virginia Tech team that has won five games in a row since opening the season with a loss to No. 1 Alabama.

But the talk of previewing whether or not that will actually happen can wait for tomorrow. 

Pitt (3-1, 2-1 ACC) currently sits in third place in the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Coastal Division. No. 13 Miami (1-0, 5-0 ACC) ranks second. 

Alone atop the ACC Coastal Division mountain is Virginia Tech (2-0, 5-1). And Pitt is only a half-game behind the first-place Hokies.

Because of this, the Panthers’ game against Virginia Tech Saturday is the most important game of Pitt’s season thus far and potentially of the season as a whole.

If Pitt wins Saturday, the Panthers may see their names begin appearing in certain polls. Meanwhile, Deadspin’s rankings of the Panthers this season in the site’s weekly “125 FBS Teams, Ranked” started Pitt in the ’50s and has the program at a season-high 45 after the bye week. 

This is not to say Pitt’s victory would vault it into the top 25 of those rankings or of any other services — because it wouldn’t. Maybe if the Panthers won 70-0, but that probably won’t happen. 

No, the importance of this game for Pitt lies in evaluating just where exactly the team is this year. The three-game winning streak is the first since the 2009 season, and it broke the “win two, lose two” pattern of head coach Paul Chryst’s first season. 

But those wins, which were certainly good wins, were expected. Pitt took care of business against New Mexico, Duke and Virginia — teams the Panthers were expected to dominate. 

As an aside, seeing the Panthers win games they’re supposed to win shouldn’t go unappreciated, because it’s something Pitt didn’t do in recent seasons that ended with the Panthers finishing below .500. See: Sept. 1, 2012, vs. Youngstown State.

But let’s get back to the point — Virginia Tech is the most meaningful game Pitt plays this year. And not just because of the old cliche that “the next game is always the most important game.”

Coaches, players and teams look at games that way, but we don’t have to. 

What about Florida State? The game was nice, but only really important for establishing just how good Jameis Winston is. No one learned anything about Pitt. Although no one should approach a game thinking they’re going to lose, that was the realistic result for the Panthers’ matchup with a team now ranked No. 6 in the nation. 

If anything, the pomp and circumstance for Pitt’s ACC debut on national television on Labor Day made the game anything of relevance. Otherwise, it’d be regarded as highly as FSU’s 63-0 demolition of Maryland this weekend. 

This weekend, we learn the most about Pitt. It’s just the second road game for the Panthers and really the first true road test both in terms of talent and atmosphere (sorry Duke and Wallace Wade Stadium).

And if what we learn proves to be a whole lot of good material, a win sets the Panthers up for a great deal of success before they’ve completed the first half of the season. 

A win this weekend would leave Pitt 4-1 overall and 3-1 in ACC play, which would vault Pitt over Virginia Tech into second place by half a game. That’s assuming Miami takes care of business with the 1-4 North Carolina Tar Heels to move to 2-0 in the conference. 

But four wins before the halfway point of the season, let alone three in conference play, will go a long way toward assuring Pitt something of higher relevance than the BBVA Compass Bowl or AdvoCare V100 Bowl. 

Plus, a win over Virginia Tech would stretch Pitt’s win streak to four games. After that, games against Old Dominion and Navy (if the government reopens in time for the game to be played) would likely allow Pitt to enter November with a six-game run of wins and a 7-1 record.

Write to Nate at tpnsports@gmail.com.