The Miami Hurricanes are looking to keep their hopes at the College Football Playoff alive. Miami is undefeated through the first two months of the season, but it has not been easy. The Hurricanes have struggled with most of their ACC opponents and needed a few late-game touchdowns in order to pull out wins. Now Miami finds itself in its most difficult place yet. The Hurricanes will be welcoming the Virginia Tech Hokies to town this week and are underdogs according to this oddsmakers.
Watch this regular season Week 10 matchup live on Saturday, November 4, 2017, at 8 p.m. ET at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. This game will be broadcast on ABC.
College Football Opening Odds at BookMaker.eu
Virginia Tech -2.5
Miami +2.5
Over/Under 50
Odds Analysis
The Hokies have easily dispatched their last three conference foes since they lost to Clemson on the first of October. Virginia Tech cruised to victories over Boston College, North Carolina, and Duke in its last three outings, beating all three teams by double digits. This team is 2-1 ATS during that stretch.
Miami has won its last four games by one possession and is 1-3 ATS during that stretch. The Hurricanes needed a last-second touchdown to beat Florida State and a miracle to beat Georgia Tech the week after. In their last two games, Miami had a real hard time getting past both Syracuse and North Carolina with Malik Rosier having an awful outing against the Tar Heels last week.
Coaching Angle
Justin Fuente is at it again. Fuente continues to be a quarterback whisperer and for the third straight year he has a quarterback that is blooming into one of the top passers in the nation.
In 2015, it was Paxton Lynch at Memphis and last year it was JUCO transfer Jerod Evans. This season, Fuente had his toughest challenge yet. He had nothing but inexperienced quarterbacks to work with and no easy choices.
Fuente decided to go with redshirt freshman Justin Jackson and that decision has paid some amazing dividends. Jackson has been fantastic in his first season at the helm of this offense and has played well aside from the loss to Clemson. He is averaging 8.5 yards per attempt and has tossed just four picks on the year.
Matchup to Watch
If Miami isn’t able to establish the run against Virginia Tech, it might be a long day for Rosier. The Hurricanes have struggled to move the ball on the ground since Mark Walton was lost for the season in the team’s win over Florida State, and Rosier has had to bail them out. He played well against Georgia Tech and Syracuse, but was a train wreck against North Carolina.
The pressure might be finally getting to the first-year starter. The Tar Heels don’t have a good defense and the Hokies have a much better defense than any other unit he has faced up until this point.
Free ATS Pick
This might be the first true sellout at Hard Rock Stadium in quite some time as the notoriously fickle fan base finally has something to root for. A win is huge for Miami’s strength of schedule and puts it in a position to leap into the top four if it can get past Notre Dame the following week.
Unfortunately for the hometown fans, I think this is where the undefeated season comes to an end. Miami has been one of the luckiest teams in all of college football this season and will have a hard time against a team that can punch with it. This is a great spot for a V Tech team that hasn’t had to show much these last few weeks. Look for the Hokies to dominate the Hurricanes and grab the top spot in the ACC Coastal.
College Football Odds: Virginia Tech 38, Miami 17
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