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Maryland at Virginia Tech Football Odds & Lines

Written by Jack Jones

It will be an ACC showdown on Thursday night as the Maryland Terrapins travel to Blacksburg to take on the Virginia Tech Hokies. Both of these teams needed the bye week heading into this one as Maryland is hoping to get the league’s top rusher in Da’Rel Scott healthy, while Virginia Tech lost their top two starting quarterbacks in their last contest. It appears the football odds makers are giving the Hokies the edge in this one with Virginia Tech a 2.5 point favorite with the total set at 42.

The bad news for the Terps in this one might be that the Hokies are unranked after dropping two straight games. Maryland has struggled to get the job done against weaker opponents all season long while taking care of ranked opposition. Now at 6-2 on the year and 3-1 in the conference the Terps find themselves a half game up over Wake Forest and Florida State for the ACC Atlantic Division title.

To keep a hold of that lead they will need Scott to be healthy. He first got hurt back on September 13th in the game against California, then hurt his shoulder again on October 25th in the team’s 27-24 win over NC State. Scott ran for 163 yards in that game, which was the first time he had gone over the century mark since the Middle Tennessee State game back on September 6th. He still leads the ACC in yards per game with 102.6, and ranks 26th in the nation.

Head coach Ralph Friedgen has him team ranked at No. 23 in the polls after some impressive wins over California, Clemson, and Wake Forest. In those three games Maryland has won pretty easily by an average of 12.3 ppg. However, the Terps are only 3-2 against teams coming in unranked, being outscored by four points in those games. Those numbers have led a lot of teams to think that this squad really isn’t as good as their record shows, and they have trouble taking care of business against weaker teams. While Virginia Tech has been ranked this season, the Hokies have been struggling as of late.

Virginia Tech comes into this game at 5-3 and 2-2 in the conference after having lost to Boston College and Florida State in back-to-back weeks. The loss to the Seminoles was especially painful when starter Tyrod Taylor was lost on the first play of the game and then backup Sean Glennon went down in the third quarter, both of them with high ankle sprains. Now both of the quarterbacks are questionable for this week’s contest against Maryland.

If they can’t go it will be up to fifth-year senior Cory Holt. Holt was 3-for-6 for 28 yards and a four yard touchdown during the second half of the Florida State game after having practiced at wide receiver all week. This week he will have at least had some snaps from under center to get his reps in if he has to go.

The injuries were just more bad news for the Hokies, who had won five straight before their recent two game skid. The offense is averaging 60 yards less per game in their losses than in their wins and against Florida State the team could only put together 82 yards of rushing. That number was particularly low when you see Tech ranks fourth in the league with 160 ypg on the ground.

If the Hokies are going to get back on track, they are probably glad they get to host Maryland. Virginia Tech has won three straight in the series, including a 28-9 win the last time the Terps came to town back in 2005.

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