Blacksburg, VA. – The Hokies have Pitt on deck, but it’s all pending the Covid situation. Pitt’s game with Georgia Tech was moved to December 12th as the team battles Covid issues. The Panthers paused football activities, but Hokies coach Justin Fuente says this ‘pending situation’ should not affect the teams preparation.
“We are all dealing with uncertainty on a daily basis. This thing hasn’t gone away and I think our guys have done a great job handling it and we can’t approach this week with any different mindset. None of us know really if we’ll get to come to work tomorrow, so we’ve gotten good training for uncertainty. But we shouldn’t have any in our preparation and that’s one of the things I brought up to the team yesterday was you guys have to understand that we’ll figure it out when we know but we can’t approach it any other way," Fuente says.
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Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi says the team is awaiting results from Sunday testing to see if they are able to resume practices on Tuesday. Fuente also announced today that defenders Keshon Artis and Zion Debose have opted out for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile Virginia has their lone departure from ACC play this weekend when they host FCS foe Abilene Christian. The 1-4 Wildcats out of West Texas aren’t exactly a household name. But coach Bronco Mendenhall says the covid scheduling didn’t offer a lot of choices.
“We were really trying to find an opponent, not ‘the’ opponent, knowing it was straight through ACC schedule. Someone non- conference-wise that was playing football. That would be available to play. Jim Booz worked really hard and trying to suggest different teams. We went through a number of them. I don’t even remember the different options we had. There weren’t many that could play or would play or had this date available to play," Bronco explained.
UVA is coming off a 31-17 win over Louisville to move to 3-4. Virginia linebacker Noah Taylor was honored as ACC linebacker of the week and wide receiver Lavel Davis Jr. was rookie of the week. The Cavaliers have been installed as a five touchdown favorite this weekend.