Two of the four remaining unbeaten Atlantic Coast Conference teams meet Friday night when Pitt faces Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va.
The Panthers (4-0, 1-0 ACC) go on the road for the first time this season to meet the Hokies (4-0, 1-0), who have already won as many home games (two) as they did all of last season.
No. 4 Miami and Duke are the other 4-0 ACC squads, hardly surprising considering the Hurricanes reached the College Football Playoff championship game last season and the Blue Devils won the ACC title game.
The perfect September starts by Pitt, under 12th-year coach Pat Narduzzi, and by Virginia Tech, under first-year coach James Franklin, however, are two of the biggest stories in the conference.
“This is going to be a battle,” Franklin said Monday. “This is going to be a four-quarter game, and I’ve got a lot of respect for what I’ve seen on tape. I’ve got a lot of respect for Pat professionally, what he’s done over his career.”
The Panthers have outscored opponents by a 157-34 margin, including a 59-0 victory last Saturday against Bucknell — Pitt’s first shutout since 2020. Mason Heintschel passed for 403 yards and six touchdowns in the victory.
The Hokies are off to their best start since 2017 after turning a 14-6 fourth-quarter deficit into a 21-14 triumph last Saturday at Boston College. Jeffrey Overton Jr. rushed for 209 yards, including the decisive 76-yard TD run.
Virginia Tech ranks sixth in the ACC with an average of 177.8 rushing yards per game. The Hokies will be facing a Pitt defense that ranks No. 2 in the league against the run, giving up just 53.3 yards per game on the ground.
“They do a good job schematically,” Narduzzi said Monday of the Hokies. “I think the O-line does an excellent job of knowing what they need to do, and they’re going to try to put us in a bind, and then we got to put ourselves out of the bind. But that’s what we do. We’re pretty good.”
The Hokies hold a 12-11 edge in the all-time series after winning the most recent meeting 38-21 three years ago, also in Blacksburg.
