It's a short week for the Virginia Tech football team after they rallied in the fourth quarter for a 21-14 win last Saturday afternoon at Boston College. Trailing 14-6, the Hokies scored on back-to-back drives late for their first ACC win under James Franklin.
The short week means everything moves up a day, including gameday to Friday night, when Virginia Tech hosts Pittsburgh in a battle of two 4-0 teams at Lane Stadium. Franklin and his staff are dealing with some injuries a third of the way through the season, and the initial availability report for Friday night's game was released, and it brought some promising news for the Hokies.
Initial availability report brings mixed news for Virginia Tech vs. Pitt
Last week, the Hokies were thin on offense. The week before, against Maryland, offensive lineman Justin Terry went down with an injury in the second quarter; wide receiver Ayden Greene did, too. Then, before the Hokies flew to Boston, offensive lineman Montavious Cunningham popped up on the injury report.
On Tuesday, the initial availability report for the Pitt game was released. Greene and Cunningham were listed as probable, while Terry was listed as out, something that wasn't a surprise after Franklin's comments on Monday.
According to David Cunningham of Tech Sideline, Brody Meadows and Cunningham were participants in practice on Tuesday, but did not go through the one-on-ones against the defense. That is a sign that, despite being listed as probable, Cunningham might not go this week against the Panthers either.
That would be a big loss of a veteran lineman ahead of one of the biggest games in Blacksburg in years. That would force Franklin and offensive line coach Matt Moore to shuffle more for the game, and likely during it as well. That's less than ideal.
As far as Greene goes, it sounds promising that he could play against Pitt, and that would be big for quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer and offensive coordinator Ty Howle. If not, Marlion Jackson should get more reps after he played against BC and hauled in a fourth-quarter touchdown reception that eventually led to a tie game after Jeffrey Overton Jr. added the two-point conversion. There are still a couple more days before kickoff, and the true test will be pregame warmups on Friday night.
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