Inside the ACC · preview

Pittsburgh is 4-0 and hasn't left home

Pittsburgh has played four games this season and all four were at Acrisure Stadium. They are 4-0 and they have not been on a bus.

Friday night they go to Blacksburg to play a team that has already won at Maryland and at Boston College.

Both records are real and neither is what it looks like

Virginia Tech and Pittsburgh are both 4-0, both 1-0 in the ACC, and both getting votes without being ranked. That is the entire similarity.

Here is Mason Heintschel's season, in order. Against Miami of Ohio: 31-of-41 for 453 yards and seven touchdowns. Against UCF: 18-of-29 for 212 and none. Against Syracuse: 10-of-23 for 123, no touchdowns, one interception. Against Bucknell: 29-of-37 for 403 and six.

Thirteen touchdown passes in the two games against Miami of Ohio and an FCS opponent. Zero in the two games against UCF and Syracuse.

Pittsburgh won those two anyway, 12-7 and 27-13, and the way they did it matters more than the fact that they did. They ran the ball 37 times for 245 yards against Syracuse. Damon Ferguson had 102. When the passing game stopped working, they became a running team and ground out two wins in the teens.

Virginia Tech should recognize that, because they did the same thing last Saturday.

The Hokies changed what they are

Ethan Grunkemeyer threw for 224, then 327, then 314 in the first three games. At Boston College he threw for 147, and Jeffrey Overton Jr. carried it 25 times for 209 yards.

Virginia Tech trailed 7-6 going into the fourth quarter in Chestnut Hill and scored 15 in the last fifteen minutes to win 21-14. It was not pretty and it was on the road, which is the part that counts here.

Two weeks ago, when we first wrote about this team at any length, the story was a quarterback going 31-of-39 in College Park. Now it is a running back with 209 and a defense that held Boston College to 14. A team that can win two different ways in consecutive road games is harder to prepare for than one that cannot.

Both of these teams have an inflated number in the ledger, by the way. Pittsburgh hung 59 on Bucknell. Virginia Tech beat VMI 73-3. Neither result tells you anything, and both are sitting inside every season average either team has produced.

What Friday actually decides

Pittsburgh's first road game of the season is a Friday night at Lane Stadium. Kickoff is 7pm on ESPN, so a national audience and a crowd that has had all day to get ready.

For Virginia Tech, 5-0 with three road wins would put them in the poll and in the ACC race properly, which is ahead of where anyone had them. The ACC preseason media poll picked Virginia Tech eighth.

For Pittsburgh, winning in Blacksburg would say the 12-7 and 27-13 wins were a team learning to win ugly rather than a team getting away with something.

What a good night looks like for the Hokies

Make Heintschel throw it. He has been excellent against the two opponents who could not cover anybody and ordinary against the two who could. Virginia Tech's defense has now held three straight opponents under 27 points, and Boston College to 14.

Run it like they did in Chestnut Hill. Overton's 209 came on 25 carries, and 42 rushing attempts as a team kept a tired defense on the sideline. Pittsburgh has not played a game where the crowd was against them, and the fastest way to make that matter is to hold the ball.

Do not turn it over. Virginia Tech has five giveaways in four games, though none at Maryland. Pittsburgh has two all season, and Heintschel has thrown one interception. In a game between two teams that grind, the margin is going to be one possession and somebody will hand it over.

Kickoff is 7pm Friday at Lane Stadium on ESPN.