After opening their ACC schedule at Boston College on the last Saturday in September this fall, Virginia Tech will open their ACC home slate on a short week, on Friday night, Oct. 2, at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg.
The Hokies will have three weeks to work out the kinks in their non-conference games against VMI, Old Dominion, and Maryland before conference play begins. If there is an ACC game that is perfect to begin the James Franklin era in Blacksburg, it's at BC, a team that is not known to sell out home games.
However, coming home, Hokies fans will pack Lane Stadium for a Friday night game, this one against Pittsburgh. Last week, Panthers head coach Pat Narduzzi explained where he feels the strength of his team will be this season.
Virginia Tech is going to have its hands full in one area against Pittsburgh
When he was hired at Virginia Tech, Franklin made some changes to the coaching staff. One coach he kept from Brent Pry's staff was offensive line coach Matt Moore. Franklin hired former Texas A&M defensive line coach Sean Spencer to coach his defensive line. Both are going to be tested by the Panthers in the trenches in early October.
"Yeah, I think anytime you talk about football, you better win it up front,'' said Narduzzi. "With the O-line, D-line, it all starts up front....... Defensive line, it starts inside. Defensive tackles with Nick James and (Sean FitzSimmons). Fitz is a dude up front, he's athletic, he's tough. Then we've got probably four defensive ends that can rotate in there. We were short on defensive ends last year. We're excited to have some depth there and stay healthy.''
Both Virginia Tech lines are in for a big training camp next month. The offensive line has struggled in recent years, but Moore has been slowly turning things around. He'll need to continue to move in the right direction, while Spencer has some talent returning, as well as adding some from the Transfer Portal.
When Pittsburgh comes to town, the trenches will be tested for the Hokies. There is a lot of work to do for Virginia Tech before the season begins.
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