#19 Virginia Tech Hokies at Wake Forest Demon Deacons
Groves Stadium – Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Saturday, October 15, 2011, 6:30 pm Eastern, TV: ESPN Game Plan
Opening Line: Virginia Tech -7
Current Line: Virginia Tech -6 1/2
Opening Total: 50 1/2
Current Total: 49 1/2
Opening Money Line: Virginia Tech -270 / Wake Forest +230
Current Money Line: Virginia Tech -260 / Wake Forest +220
The 5-1 Virginia Tech Hokies travel to Winston-Salem to take on the 4-1 Wake Forest Demon Deacons. It is a crucial game in the ACC as the Hokies are 1-1 in conference and the Deacons are already 3-0. The only loss for the Hokies came at home to then #13 Clemson 23-3. The Hokies, are coached by Frank Beamer, have home wins over Appalachian St 66-13, Arkansas St 26-7, and last week against Miami 38-35, along with road wins at East Carolina 17-10 and Marshall 30-10. Wake Forest, coached by Jim Grobe, opened the season with a loss at Syracuse 36-29 in overtime, but since then have reeled off 4 straight wins. The Deacons have home wins over NC State 34-27, Gardner-Webb 48-5, and last week against a reeling Florida St team 35-30, along with a road win at Boston College 27-19. This is the 36th meeting between Wake and Virginia Tech in a series that dates back to 1916. The Hokies lead the series 23-11-1 including last year in Blacksburg 52-21.
Virginia Tech hosted the Miami Hurricanes last week. The game was hard fought as you might expect from two long time rivals. The Hokies were up 21-7 at halftime, but Miami came back to take a 35-31 lead in the fourth quarter with less than 3 minutes left. The Hokies scored with 56 seconds left on a 19 yard touchdown run from quarterback Logan Thomas to win 38-35, but they didn’t cover the 7.5 point college football betting line. The Hokies had 482 total yards, including 310 passing yards from Thomas. He also threw 3 touchdown passes with no interceptions, and added another rushing touchdown other than the game winner. Running back David Wilson had 23 carries, 128 yards and no rushing touchdowns, but he did have a touchdown catch. Receiver Jarrett Boykin had 7 catches for 120 yards and a touchdown. Danny Coale had 5 catches for 91 yards and a touchdown. Miami had 519 total yards, including 236 rushing yards, but the Hurricanes had 9 penalties.
The Hokies are averaging 410.2 yards a game including 192 rushing yards a game. Virginia Tech is scoring 30 points a game. The Hokies have allowed 7 sacks and have 9 turnovers. Tech is 39/91 on third and fourth down conversions, and 23/31 scoring in the red zone with 17 touchdowns. Virginia Tech is holding opponents to 294.5 total yards, including just 87.8 rushing yards a game. The Hokies are only allowing 16.3 points a game. All 3 are ranked in the top 14 nationally. Virginia Tech has forced 10 turnovers and 18 sacks this year. Hokie opponents are 30/94 on third and fourth down conversions, and 9/13 scoring in the red zone with 8 touchdowns.
Thomas is 98/157 passing with 1,196 yards, 7 touchdowns and 5 interceptions along with 50 carries, 158 yards, and 3 touchdowns. Wilson has 130 carries, 767 yards, and 5 touchdowns, along with 11 catches for 68 yards and a touchdown. Josh Oglesby has 44 carries, 179 yards, and 5 scores, and 3 catches for 18 yards. Receiver Danny Coale has 28 catches, 417 yards, and a 2 touchdowns. Boykin has 20 catches for 223 yards, and 2 touchdowns. Marcus Davis has 12 catches, 216 yards, and 2 touchdowns. D.J. Coles has 19 catches, 206 yards, and a score. Receiver Dyrell Roberts is out for the season with an arm injury. Tight end Eric Martin is questionable with a shoulder injury. Kicker Cody Journell is 22/23 on extra points and 6/9 on field goals with a long of 41 yards. The Hokies have 5 defensive players listed as questionable or out.
Wake Forest hosted then #23 Florida St last week. The Seminoles were a ten point favorite despite losing 2 games in a row to Oklahoma and Clemson. The game was close throughout with Wake Forest leading 16-14 at halftime. The Demon Deacons expanded the lead to 25-17 at the end of the third, and led by as much as 15 points in the fourth quarter. Florida St scored with less than a minute left to make the final 35-30 Wake Forest. Florida St had more total yards than Wake Forest 425-391, but the Seminoles had 13 penalties for 109 yards and 5 turnovers. Wake Forest also scored a safety in the third quarter. The Deacons didn’t have any turnovers but did have 10 penalties for 87 yards. Wake had 263 passing yards including 223 yards from Tanner Price, who also had 3 touchdown passes. Wide Receiver Michael Campanaro also threw a 30 yard touchdown pass on his only attempt of the day, and had 4 catches for 60 yards. Running back Josh Harris had 13 carries for 136 yards. He is listed as questionable for the Virginia Tech game with a hamstring injury. Receiver Chris Givens had 6 catches, 101 yards and a touchdown. Terence Davis had 2 touchdown catches on his only 2 catches of the day.
Wake Forest is averaging 416.2 total yards a game including 303.8 passing yards. The Deacons are scoring 34.6 points a game. Wake has 4 turnovers and has allowed 12 sacks this season. The Demon Deacons are 38/86 on third and fourth down conversions, and 24/27 scoring in the red zone but they have only 13 touchdowns. Wake Forest is allowing 324.6 yards a game including 102 rushing yards. The Deacons are allowing 23.4 points a game. Wake Forest has forced 9 turnovers and 5 sacks this season. Wake opponents are 26/78 on third and fourth down conversions and 13/15 scoring in the red zone with 9 touchdowns.
Price is 101/162 passing for 1,352 yards, 10 touchdowns and 2 interceptions. Harris has 91 carries, 412 yards, and 2 touchdowns with 5 catches for 22 yards. Brandon Pendergrass has 40 carries for 148 yards, and 2 touchdowns along with 5 catches for 36 yards. he will get most of the carries if Harris can’t go. Givens has 33 catches for 599 yards, and 5 touchdowns, along with 3 carries for 11 yards. Danny Dembry has 23 catches for 296 yards and a touchdown, along with a rushing touchdown. Campanaro has 20 catches for 263 yards and 2 touchdowns and has 2 touchdown passes this season. Davis has 10 catches, 166 yards, and 3 scores. Kicker Jimmy Newman is 18/120 on extra points and 11/12 on field goals with a long of 40 yards.
Wake Forest is 4-1 against the spread this year and 4 of the 5 games have gone over the total. Virginia Tech is 1-5 ATS this season and the total is 2-4 in those games. The Hokies are 6-2 ATS in their last 8 games as a road favorite of between 3.5 and 10 points, 19-7 ATS in road games against teams with winning home records, 20-8 ATS as a road favorite, 40-17 ATS in conference games, 7-3 ATS in road games, 39-19 ATS teams with winning records, 0-4 following a game where they failed to cover, 0-5 as a favorite and following a straight up win, and overall.
With so many close wins, no one really knows if this Wake Forest team is for real or not. Sure, they beat Florida St last week, but the Seminoles are on a three game losing streak. An upset over Virginia Tech would go a long way towards proving Wake is legit and a threat to compete for the conference title with Clemson and Georgia Tech. Virginia Tech should not overlook this team as Wake is very dangerous especially with their run defense.
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