Virginia Tech heavy underdog in season opener against Ohio State
The Virginia Tech Hokies are 7–1 against the spread in their last eight games as home underdogs with five outright upsets over that stretch. The Hokies will try to add a sixth when they host the Ohio State Buckeyes on Monday night at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg.
Virginia Tech is a 13-point home underdog at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. This is just the third time since 2001 that the Hokies have been a double-digit underdog at home.
After going into Ohio State as a 10-point underdog and coming away with a 35–21 victory last season, Virginia Tech looked like it could be on its way to a strong season. Instead, the Hokies went 3–6 SU and 2–7 ATS over their next nine games en route to a disappointing 7–6 SU and 6–7 ATS season.
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Virginia Tech will be a fast and dangerous team on defense in 2015, as it always is, but will need the offense to step up to get back into national contention.
It isn't common in today's college football landscape to see so much talent return from a team that won the national championship a year ago. Ohio State has such an embarrassment of riches at quarterback in J.T. Barrett and Cardale Jones that former starter and two-time Big Ten offensive player of the year Braxton Miller has converted to wide receiver.
Add running back Ezekiel Elliot, a top contender on the Heisman Trophy odds, back into the mix along with Urban Meyer's recruiting depth, and Ohio State should be well on its way to another season similar to last year's 14–1 SU and 10–5 ATS marks.
The total for Monday night's Buckeyes-Hokies betting matchup is set at 52.5 points. Virginia Tech went 8–3 on the UNDER over its last 11 games last season while Ohio State has gone 15–3 on the OVER in its last 18 games.
Virginia Tech can enter this game with confidence after last year's upset, but Ohio State is a much more mature and experienced team than it was in Week 2 of last year, and the Buckeyes have had plenty of time to prepare for this one. The Hokies will be hard pressed to pull off the upset again this year.
