This has been a very different kind of season for Virginia Tech. I can’t remember a season where the offense has been asked to carry the defense like they have this season. As I mentioned in my season preview, this defense was always going to be young and inexperienced. But you add on dismissals and injuries and this defense looks pretty thin at a lot of positions. Give this defense another year of experience and recruiting, I think things will be okay but for now hold on to your butts.
Virginia Tech
Overall S&P+ Rank: 55th
Offensive S&P+ Rank: 24th
Defensive S&P+ Rank: 91st 👀
Special Teams S&P+ Rank: 10th
Boston College
Overall S&P+ Rank: 38th
Offensive S&P+ Rank: 69th
Defensive S&P+ Rank: 32nd
Special Teams S&P+ Rank: 88th
This Boston College team is exactly what you expect from Boston College – great defense and a strong running game. AJ Dillon is going to be a handful. He’s is rated as one of the top running backs in the nation. He leads the team with 807 rushing yards and 7 rushing touchdowns. His physical running style will make life difficult on Virginia Tech’s defense. Expect him to get a heavy workload on Saturday.
Boston College’s defense is ranked 16th in Passing Efficiency Defense. Which means they don’t give up a lot thru the air. If you want to consistently get yards against this defense, you need to do it on the ground – something Virginia Tech hasn’t been particularly good at this year. This defense also wreaks havoc in the backfield piling up tackles for loss and sacks. This is a game where the Hokies need to avoid getting in long yardage situations. Watch out for Wyatt Ray coming off the edge.
This is another bad matchup for the Hokies. The Hokies defensive personnel are on the smaller end in size but they are quick. That can work against spread teams like Duke and UNC. But against teams that will line up and smack you in the mouth like Georgia Tech and Boston College – not so much. Since the Boston College is a more traditional, pro-style offense the Hokies will have more success than last week against Georgia Tech. But it’s still a terrible matchup and the Hokies will need to outscore Boston College to hope to win. Likely into the 30s, if not the 40s.
Prediction: Boston College 38, Virginia Tech 24
treadmillhorse 