North Carolina at Georgia Tech Line

Written by Steve Janus

The No. 24 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets are set to host the No. 25 North Carolina Tar Heels in a early ACC Coastal Division matchup. Georgia Tech’s running game has carried them to a 3-0 start, including a 66-24 win over Kansas at home last week. The Tar Heels improved to 3-0 and 1-0 in the ACC with a 28-17 win over Virginia. Georgia Tech has won five of the last six in the series, including a 30-24 win at North Carolina a season ago. The Tar Heels have lost six straight when playing at Atlanta.

If you are interesting in the week 4 college football odds, we are currently showing Georgia Tech listed as 6.5-point favorites over North Carolina with the total set at 58.5 points.

North Carolina:

The Tar Heels have been impressive on the field this season, but this team is getting a lot of unwanted attention from a recent NCAA investigation. North Carolina announced earlier this week that they would be vacating all 16 wins from the 2008 and 2009 seasons. The players must find a way to ignore all the distractions and focus on stopping a very good Georgia Tech team.

A lot of people wondered how the offense would shape up without TJ Yates at quarterback, but so far the offense has looked very good behind sophomore quarterback Bryn Renner. After three games Renner is completing 81.4% of his passes for 693 yards with five touchdowns. The problem is when he makes a mistake it usually ends up in the hands of the defense. Renner has thrown just 13 incomplete passes all season, but four have resulted in interceptions.

Renner’s go to receiver is senior Dwight Jones, who has a team-best 20 catches for 336 yards and four touchdowns. The only other player to catch a touchdown pass is junior Jheranie Boyd, but he has just three catches all season.

The ground game has been fueled by redshirt freshman Giovani Bernard and senior Ryan Houston. Bernard has carried it 37 times for 247 yards and three scores, while Houston as 31 rushes for just 109 yards and three touchdowns.

The Tar Heels come in allowing just 16.3 points per game, and have allowed opposing offenses to rush for just 76.7 yards per game. I have a pretty good feeling that average is going to go up after this week. Georgia Tech has been running the ball like crazy to start the season and put up 372 yards on the ground against the Tar Heels defense last year.

Georgia Tech:

There is no question that the Yellow Jackets have been one of the bigger surprises to start the 2011 season. Including the bowl game against Air Force, Georgia Tech lost five of their final six games of last season. It’s hard to imagine this team starting any better than they have so far. While the have played three easy opponents, they have dominated every game they have played.

Last week they set school records with 604 rushing yards and 768 yards of total offense. They lead the country in rushing (427.7 ypg) and scoring (59.3 ppg). The way this team is moving the ball with the triple-option, this team could very well shock everyone and win the ACC this season.

Five different players have rushed for over 100 yards this season, and three of those are over 200 yards. Orwin Smith leads the way with 270 yards and four touchdowns. Synjyn Davis has 214 yards and four touchdowns and David Sims has added 205 and three scores.

Starting quarterback Tevin Washington has attempted just 28 passes all season, but he has completed 17 of those attempts for 637 yards with seven touchdowns and no interceptions.

While the offense has been great, the defense has looked pretty good. Kansas had scored 85 points with 981 yards of total offense in their first two games. Georgia Tech held them to just 24 points and 362 yards of offense. Last year they held North Carolina to just 352 yards.

Betting Trends:

North Carolina is 18-7 ATS in their last 25 games as an underdog.

Georgia Tech is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games as a favorite.

For help on who to take this weekend, check out who Steve Janus has picked to win in week 4 of college football.

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