Virginia Tech at Georgia Tech Line

Written by Steve Janus

First place in the ACC Coastal division will be up for grabs this Thursday when the No. 10 Virginia Tech Hokies go on the road to face the No. 21 Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. The Hokies have quietly put together a 8-1 season and are leading the Coastal with a 4-1 division record. The Yellow Jackets are just a half-game back at 4-2 inside the conference after a huge 31-17 upset win at home over Clemson in their last game. Virginia Tech held on for a 28-21 win at home against Georgia Tech a season ago, but the home team has won three straight in the series.

Taking a look at the week 11 college football lines, oddsmakers currently have Georgia Tech favored by just 1-point over Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech:

The Hokies return from their bye week riding a four game winning streak, but a lot of people are still questioning whether this team is as good as their record indicates. The only ranked team the Hokies have played all season is Clemson, and they were dominated in that game 23-3. Still, this team is in the drivers seat to once again win the Coastal division and play in the ACC Championship Game.

In their last game against the Blue Devils, Virginia Tech was pushed to the limit in a 14-10 win on the road. The Hokies opened up the game with two touchdowns on their first three possessions. They were really moving the ball with ease against the Blue Devils defense, but two interceptions and a missed field goal kept them from blowing the game wide open in the first half. In the second half the offense went MIA. Virginia Tech punted six times with just three drives that produced more than 10 yards of offense.

Logan Wilson threw for 190 yards and the ground game piled on 243 yards behind a 148 yards from junior David Wilson, but almost all of those yards came in the first half. If it wasn’t four their defense forcing four turnovers and Duke missing three field goals, they would have likely left that game with a loss.

The offense better get things figured out if they want any chance of beating the Yellow Jackets on Thursday. Georgia Tech hasn’t been great defensively this year, but they aren’t any worse off on that side of the ball than the Blue Devils. Not to mention the Yellow Jackets just held a Clemson offense that was averaging over 40 points to just 17 in their last home game.

Georgia Tech:

The Yellow Jackets also come into this game with an extra week to prepare, as they haven’t played since beating the Tigers back on October 29. The win came at the right time, as Georgia Tech had lost their previous two games at Virginia and at Miami after opening the season 6-0.

Georgia Tech ran for 383 yards and four touchdowns against Clemson, and whenever this team can get things going on the ground they are extremely difficult to beat. Junior quarterback Tevin Washington threw for just 60 yards on 4 of 9 passing, but had a team-high 176 yards with a touchdown on the ground.

Their ability to run the ball against Virginia Tech is going to be the difference maker in this game. In their 7-24 loss at Miami they managed just 134 yards on 48 attempts. The Hokies come with the 5th ranked run defense in the country, allowing just 86.3 ypg. However, they did allow 236 yards to Miami’s rushing attack earlier this season and 346 in last year’s game against the Yellow Jackets.

Betting Trends:

Virginia Tech is 20-7 ATS in their last 27 road games vs. a team with a winning home record.

Georgia Tech is 5-15-2 ATS in their last 22 home games vs. a team with a winning road record.

Be sure to stop back and check out who Steve Janus has picked to win this week in college football. The expert handicapper is 15-5 over his last 20 college selections.

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