The Duke Blue Devils and Virginia Tech Hokies do battle Saturday in a week 11 ACC college football matchup from Wallace Wade Stadium.
The Virginia Tech Hokies will try to rebound from a 6th straight loss, falling to 2-7 on the year after a 28-27 loss to Georgia Tech last time out. Grant Wells has thrown for 1,846 yards, 8 touchdowns and 8 interceptions on 58.5% passing while Keshawn King leads the Hokies with 338 rushing yards and 3 scores. Jalen Holston, Chance Black and Malachi Thomas each have 100+ rushing yards as well this season. Kaleb Smith has a team-high 547 receiving yards and 35 receptions while five more Hokies have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Dax Hollifield has a team-high 67 total tackles including 28 solo tackles while Armani Chatman has an interception and the Hokie defense as a unit has 18 combined sacks as well this year.
The Duke Blue Devils will be out to build on back-to-back road wins after a 38-31 win over Boston College to improve to 6-3 on the year. Riley Leonard has thrown for 1,851 yards, 11 touchdowns and 4 interceptions on 64.6% passing while also rushing for a team-high 577 yards and 9 touchdowns. Jordan Waters has 461 rushing yards with 8 touchdowns while Jaylen Coleman has 307 rushing yards with 4 scores and Jaquez Moore has 396 rushing yards and 4 TDs. Jalon Calhoun has a team-high 36 grabs for 491 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns while Eli Pancol has 335 receiving yards and Jordan Moore has 331 receiving yards coming on 32 catches. five more Blue Devils each have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Darius Joiner has a team-high 70 total tackles with 50 solo tackles while DeWayne Carter has 4.5 sacks and Brandon Johnson has 3.5 sacks this season.
Virginia Tech is 2-5 ATS in their last 7 games overall and 4-12 ATS in their last 16 road games while the under is 5-1 in their last 6 games following an ATS loss. Duke is 8-20 ATS in their last 28 conference games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games against a team with a losing record while the over is 8-1-1 in their last 10 games in November.
I get the case to be made for an underdog in some spots, especially a double-digit underdog in conference play. However, I just don’t trust this Virginia Tech offense or lack thereof, and while Duke’s had their blips over the course of the season, the reality is that Mike Elko’s done a great job at turning this Duke team around in such a short period. Give me the Blue Devils here.