NCAA Football Odds – Virginia Tech Looks to Even Its Record

Sportsbook customers who follow the NCAA football odds are aware how important it was for the Virginia Tech Hokies to put a win on the board last week, and now they look to even their record against the Boston College Eagles, in a game that begins on Saturday at Noon ET at Alumni Stadium (artificial turf) in Chestnut Hill, MA. In the NCAA football odds, the Hokies are a four-point road favorite, with the total posted at 48 points. We will base our football betting prediction on those numbers.

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Virginia Tech Hokies (1-2 SU, 1-1 ATS) at Boston College Eagles (2-0 SU, 0-1 ATS)
Live at Alumni Stadium
Chestnut Hill, MA
Saturday, September 25 –  Noon ET
TV: ESPN Game Plan

NCAA Football Odds:
Virginia Tech -4
Boston College +4
Total  48

Virginia Tech has already had an event-filled season. The Hokies came close but suffered a loss at FedEx Field to third-ranked Boise State to start the season, and then inexplicably loss to James Madison, an FCS school, in the aftermath of that. The big news in Blacksburg this week, and something that has affected the NCAA football odds, is the condition of star running back Ryan Williams, who ran for 1655 yards last year as a freshman, and strained his left hamstring on Saturday against East Carolina, in a game where Tech came from behind to score a 49-27 win.

But are the Hokies sunk without Williams? Not by a longshot. Remember that this team brought back Darren Evans, who himself was a standout freshman back, running for 1265 yards two years ago, and then there is David Wilson, who scored a TD against Boston College last year, ran for 165 yards against Marshall in his most extended action, and had 89 yards last weekend. The leading rusher on this team is actually a quarterback, Tyrod Taylor, who has logged 191 yards thus far. No, I don’t think the injury to Williams will make the Hokies much less of a value in the NCAA football odds.

Here are some of the trends as they impact our football betting prediction on this game:

• Virginia Tech has won six of its last eight games SU
• Virginia Tech has won four of its last five road games SU
• Boston College has won five of its last seven games SU
• Boston College has won ten of its last 11 home games SU

….and some of the head-to-head betting trends that involve the NCAA football odds:

• Virginia Tech has won eleven of the last 15 meetings SU
• Boston College has covered four of the last five meetings as the home team
• Virginia Tech has won five of the last seven meetings SU as the road team

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I really don’t know how much stock we can place in Boston College’s #3 ranking in rushing defense in the process of analyzing the NCAA football odds, considering that neither Weber State nor Kent State was going to have the type of offense to push them all that much. But you can rest assured that this is going to be a huge test for the Eagles, and a huge test as well for linebacker Mark Herzlich, who was maybe the best linebacker prospect in the country before his cancer treatment, and is probably not playing at the same level now.

It’s actually kind of funny to call Virginia Tech the team with the momentum, but the truth is that their furious second-half rally against East Carolina probably has the Hokies  feeling better about themselves, and it was very important to take the sting out of the loss to James Madison.

Last season Boston College was able to manage just 163 yards against the Hokie defense, in dropping the third meeting in the last four years in the NCAA football odds. While we understand perfectly that Virginia Tech isn’t quite at that same level in it special teams, as well as on its stop unit, we also acknowledge that Eagle QB David Shinskie (19 TD’s, 16 INT’s in his career) may be hard-pressed to complete 50% of his throws. Make no mistake – yards will be harder to come by for the Eagles than for the Hokies, though we must note that BC has covered nine of 13 home games since the start of 2008. Our instinct here is to recommend Virginia Tech minus the points in the NCAA football odds, as our football betting prediction for Saturday.

JAY’S PLAY:  VIRGINIA TECH -4 ***
(Graded on a scale of 1-4 stars)

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