The Virginia Tech Hokies and the NC State Wolfpack meet in a week 9 ACC conference college football matchup from Carter-Finley Stadium on Thursday night.
The Virginia Tech Hokies will look to snap a four-game losing skid after a 20-14 loss to Miami last time out, falling to 2-5 on the year. Grant Wells has thrown for 1,439 yards, 7 touchdowns and 7 interceptions on 59.5% passing while Keshawn King leads the Hokies with 259 rushing yards and a pair of scores. Jalen Holston and Malachi Thomas each have 100+ rushing yards as well this season. Kaleb Smith has a team-high 428 receiving yards and 28 receptions while four more Hokies have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Dax Hollifield has a team-high 52 total tackles including 22 solo tackles while Armani Chatman has an interception and the Hokie defense as a unit has 13 combined sacks as well this year.
The NC State Wolfpack will hope to find some consistency after alternating wins and losses in each of their last four games following a 24-9 loss to Syracuse last time out, dropping to 5-2 on the year. Devin Leary’s thrown for 1,265 yards, 11 touchdowns and 4 picks on 61.1% passing while Jordan Houston leads the Wolfpack with 304 rushing yards and Demie Sumo-Karngbaye has 299 rushing yards with 3 touchdowns as well this season. Thayer Thomas has a team-high 319 receiving yards while five other NC State receivers have at least 100 receiving yards this season. On defense, Drake Thomas has a team-high 50 total tackles while Aydan White has 3 interceptions and Shyheim Battle and Tyler Baker-Williams each have a pair of interceptions this season.
Virginia Tech is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 road games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 8-2 in their last 10 games against a team with a winning record. NC State is 12-5 ATS in their last 17 home games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games overall while the under is 17-2-1 in their last 20 Thursday games.
I get the reasoning for backing an underdog in some spots and NC State’s offense has taken a step back in recent weeks. However, Virginia Tech’s offense has been non-existent for much of the year, and in two conference road games, the Hokies have allowed 43 PPG and been outscored 90-39. This feels like a good spot for NC State to wake up offensively, so I’ll lay the points with NC State here.