Out of all of Virginia Tech’s prior opponents this season, in the big picture this edition of the Pitt Panthers reminds me most of Georgia Tech. With all due respect to Bill Parcells, Pitt is one of those teams that’s better than its record indicates. It’s also a veteran team with a tricky offense and a defense that’s inconsistent from week to week.

Offense

Pitt is yet another team that relies on the ground game. You’ve heard of “three-headed monster” running games—well, Pitt has a five-headed hydra or something. Hokie fans know well how shifty bruisers Qadree Ollison (#30) and Darrin Hall (#22) at tailback and fleet receiver Maurice Ffrench (#2) have picked up yards over the years. The bonus is that this year, QB Kenny Pickett (#8) has evolved from statue to deft, dangerous scrambler, and true freshman V’Lique Carter (#19) moved over from scout DB to suddenly become a homerun threat on the perimeter.

Much like the Flexbone triple, the Panthers run some under-center plays that have three potential ball carriers converging on the snap. To make things worse, they run split blocking schemes, where the offense will split itself down the middle and run different plays to either side of the formation. This is a holdover from previous OC Matt Canada (who’s presently serving time at Maryland), though even with the originating maestro gone, the scheme looked like it reached an apex against Duke. Unlike GT, they employ a conventional blocking style that’ll remind you of recent opponent Boston College.

Probably their trickiest plays involve a backfield runner and motion receiver converging on the ball while the line parts down the middle, skewing defenders’ reads. Tremaine Edmunds was a one-man wrecking crew on these plays, but I’m not sure anyone on this year’s team can play that role. Here are a few perimeter runs, which are the plays I’m most concerned about:

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