Hokies close as 2-point favorites as kickoff approaches

On By Littum

Virginia Tech remains very short favorites ahead of their road matchup shadowing the Duke Blue Devils.

The Hokies are favorites again, but Virginia Tech has underperformed as favorites this year. Tech lost to Vanderbilt in week one and failed to cover the spread on more than one occasion.

The Hokies closed as two-point favorites before kickoff.

It’s no secret that Virginia Tech isn’t where they wanted to be before the season started. The Hokies have just two weeks left in the year and are still not bowl eligible. It’s not like the team is bad by any means either, Bhayshul Tuten is one of the best backs in the country and Antwaun Powell-Ryland is arguably the best pass rusher in college football, but still reflects the Hokies’ record not. to.

All five of Virginia Tech’s losses were by ten points or less, four of the losses being one-score games. The Hokies never really get blown out, but in close games, Virginia Tech has struggled. As head coach, Brent Pry is now 1-12 in one-score games with no one-score wins this year.

The Hokies need to find their footing this week and the matchup is in their favor.

The Duke Blue Devils approach this matchup with a completely different backstory. Before the season, PFF projected Duke to have 6.2 wins on the season, and the Blue Devils’ consensus win margin was 5.5.

It’s fair to say that Duke has fared rather better than both of those numbers. With the Blue Devils on seven wins and the only teams on the way to nine wins being Virginia Tech and Wake Forest, it wouldn’t be unrealistic to say that Duke could end up with the third-best record in the ACC, possibly tied with Clemson.

Many analysts thought Manny Diaz was a risky hire for the Blue Devils, I wrote a piece in ACC head coaches for the season and I ranked Diaz as the twelfth best coach in the conference. Sometimes, when things don’t always look right on the stat sheet, they work on the field, and that has been Diaz’s recipe for success.

The odds are updated regularly and are subject to change.

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Additional links:

Virginia Tech vs Duke: Final score predictions for Saturday’s game

Virginia Tech Football: Hokies unveil uniform combination for matchup with Duke

Virginia Tech Football: Hokies DC mentioned as potential candidate for NFL job