Virginia Tech Hokies vs. Pittsburgh Panthers: News Tidbits and Predictions

It’s a night kickoff at Lane Stadium for a prime-time matchup between the hapless and the floundering. The University of Pittsburgh Panthers, the Hokies’ old nemesis from the Big East, come to plague Hokie Nation for another bruising fight. That’s what these games generally end up being. Pitt always means problems in Blacksburg.

It’s also military appreciation and White Effect for the game.

The #25 goes back to Peter Moore for the game.

Hokie Nation keeps up the hope by selling out Lane again. Maybe this time, the team can come up with a win for everyone. Beating Pitt, for those of us old Hokies, is a very satisfying thing. Not quite as savory as beating the Hoos, but almost there.

And with that, the news feed sort of ends as the PR wagon this week has been a bit on the spotty side. We are under the impression that the starting QB will be Kyron Drones, again, and that is a good thing. Hopefully, he’s settled in a bit more, and the powers that be will allow him to spread it out and run. The Hokies really need something to spark something, anything.

Predictions:

Bryan Manning

The Hokies have an excellent shot at winning this game. We all know what Pitt has done to the Hokies on the ground in recent seasons. And while the Panthers are struggling early this season, they can and will run it down your throat. That’s concerning because of Virginia Tech’s inability to stop the run. Much of VT’s problems are due to poor run fits by the linebackers. The defensive line is far from perfect but nowhere near as bad as the numbers suggest.

Offensively, Tyler Bowen needs to stick with the running game. It will open up opportunities in the passing game. Tech has had trouble establishing the run, but last week, the Hokies had some success yet seemed to stray from the run. That’s unacceptable, especially when you are trying to break in a young quarterback.

What happens? I think this game is close, but I cannot pick the Hokies due to their recent history against Pitt and knowing the Panthers are a physical team that will force VT to stop the run or else.

Pittsburgh 24, Virginia Tech 20

John Schneider

As the Risk Chart tells us, this is one of the two games left on the schedule that we have a 50/50 shot at winning. The wise guys are probably right about the spread but I think that just maybe, tech has a third touchdown in them - maybe the defense will step up, who knows? What I do know is that these are two evenly matched teams though Pitt’s defense might be a bit better than Tech’s at this point in the season. I think that Tech’s offense might be just a bit better than Pitt’s which balances things out a bit. There is nothing that tells me that we absolutely have no shot at winning this game. If Drones plays, and “they” let him improvise, get out of the pocket, and get him running outside along with the seam and crossing/slant routes that he’s managed to hit well, Tech might just generate enough offense to get past the 20-point barrier that they have encountered far too often in the last two seasons. Tuten and Thomas need to have a good day, and the offensive line has to get some level of control going. Hopefully the pre-snap penalty problem was addressed this week (both sides of the ball were guilty, and in particular the defensive line.) If the can address those issues, Virginia Tech can win this one by a Touchdown. I’ll go out on a limb and give the Hokies the win.

27-17 Hokies

Time to get ready. Knee braces... batteries... cameras... lenses... sideline pass... parking pass... okay...

Ready for Game Day.

GO HOKIES!!!