Virginia Cavaliers (6-2) vs. BYU Cougars (6-2)
October 30, 2021 10:15 pm EDT
The Line: BYU Cougars -2.5 / Virginia Cavaliers +2.5; Over/Under: 64
(Get latest betting odds)
The BYU Cougars and Virginia Cavaliers square off in week 9 college football action from LaVell Edwards Stadium in Provo on Saturday night.
The Virginia Cavaliers will look to build on their 48-40 win over Georgia Tech in their last game. Brennan Armstrong has thrown for 3,220 yards, 23 touchdowns and 6 interceptions on 64.2% passing while Wayne Taulapapa has a team-high 258 rushing yards and another four Cavaliers have at least 100 rushing yards this season. Dontayvion Wicks leads Virginia’s receiving group with 847 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns while Keytaon Thompson and Billy Kemp IV each have 500+ receiving yards. Ra’Shaun Henry has 457 receiving yards and Jelani Woods also has 378 receiving yards as well for the Cavaliers this season. On defense, Nick Jackson leads the Cavaliers with 70 total tackles while Noah Taylor and Mandy Alonso each have a team-high 3 sacks and Joey Blount has a pair of interceptions for the Cavalier defense this season.
The BYU Cougars will try to build on a narrow 21-19 win over Washington State in their last game. Jaren Hall has thrown for 1,348 yards, 9 touchdowns and 3 interceptions on 63.6% passing while Tyler Allgeier has a team-high 866 rushing yards and 11 rushing scores this season. Gunner Romney, Puka Nacua and Neil Pau’u each have 400+ receiving yards this season, combining for 1,335 receiving yards and 8 touchdowns this season. On defense, Ben Bywater leads BYU with 63 total tackles while Malik Moore has 3 interceptions and Uriah Leiataua has a team-high 2.5 sacks on the year.
Virginia is 5-0 ATS in their last 5 non-conference games and 22-8 ATS in their last 30 games against a team with a winning record while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 games as a road underdog. BYU is 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games overall while the under is 7-1 in their last 8 games as a favorite.
I get why BYU would be favored here, as the Cavaliers haven’t been great defensively and the Cougars are at home. However, I didn’t like what I saw from BYU against Washington State and Virginia has been putting up points in bunches to the point that I’m not sure even BYU can hang here. I’ll take the points with Virginia in this one.
