Opening Odds for Virginia Tech-California Peg Hokies As Single-Score Favorites

Virginia Tech football's betting odds have opened before its Week 9 Friday night showdown with the California Golden Bears; the Hokies will enter as three-point favorites, per Circa Sports.

College Football🏈Week 9 Opening Lines pic.twitter.com/JrXcJlP42y
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) October 19, 2025

Virginia Tech is coming off a bye week, following a 35-20 loss to then-No. 13 Georgia Tech, who elevated to No. 7 in this week's AP poll. The Hokies are 2-9 against Power Four foes, dating back to Syracuse of last year.

Virginia Tech is 1-6 this season against the spread, including an 0-4 mark, both at home and as favorites. Meanwhile, California is 3-4 against the spread and 2-1 both in road contests and as the underdog.

The Hokies are 3-4 relative to over-under, which includes a 3-1 home mark. Cal is 2-5 and 1-2 in terms of overall over-under record and 1-2 in road games by the same metric.

Just one of Cal's last five games has hit the over: the Golden Bears' 45-21 loss to Duke on Oct. 4.

At signal-caller, Kyron Drones has produced a turbulent up-and-down campaign for the Hokies. Through seven games, the redshirt senior has thrown for 1,397 yards, a 60.5% completion percentage, 11 passing touchdowns and five interceptions. Drones' quarterback rating (QBR) of 50.5 ranks No. 96 in the nation and No. 13 in the ACC.

Meanwhile, freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele has also produced the same kind of volatile performance. After a stellar opening trio of contests, Sagapolutele has cooled off.

Oct 17, 2025; Berkeley, Calif.; California quarterback Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele (3) throws against North Carolina. | Eakin Howard-Imagn Images

In his first three games, the freshman tallied six passing touchdowns and a lone interception. In the following four contests, he's thrown four touchdowns to six picks. Sagapolutele's QBR of 42.7 ranks No. 113 in the nation and No. 16 in the ACC, behind Pitt's Eli Holstein, who has now been benched in favor of Mason Heintschel.

Ahead of the matchup, Virginia Tech's interim head coach Philip Montgomery believes that the bye week has come at an opportune time.

"Right now, it's an extremely good time," Montgomery said during the bye week on Wednesday. "I mean, to your point, with all the injuries that has occurred and guys trying to work their way back and some of them playing through injury even right now, the opportunity for those guys to get a little bit healthier. In addition to that, we've had to play a lot of young guys and out of those young guys, those guys getting the opportunity for things to slow down a little bit and catch their breath, kind of get back to some of the fundamentals and the technique things. It's been really good for that part of it.

"And then, just emotionally what everybody has gone through, it's not just the physical presence of what we've gone through, but the mental part of it. And for these guys, it's been a great time for them."

Virginia Tech will contest the Golden Bears on Friday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. ET, with viewing available on ESPN.

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