4. Temple at Duke, Virginia Tech at Old Dominion
LINES Duke -7, Virginia Tech -7.5
ATS PICKS Duke and Virginia Tech
I’m lumping together the two seemingly undervalued ACC teams with new head coaches.
I might be a well-known Power Five snob, but that’s not why I’m going with Duke and Virginia Tech here.
Actually, that’s a total lie. You’re giving me two Power Five teams against two mediocre Group of Five programs at only around a touchdown each? Fine. Let’s go.
I like the Duke game more than the Virginia Tech one. It’s at home for the Blue Devils, Temple is going through a coaching change of its own, and I’ll believe there will be scoring when it actually happens.
(BTW, the 51 of Pitt-West Virginia looks even more bizarre considering the point total on the Owls and Blue Devils checks in at 51.5.)
Temple will be better than the 3-9 version of last season, and 2021 shouldn’t matter when looking at 2022 wagers, but …
That Owl team last year really couldn’t score. It didn’t get past 14 points in nine of its 12 games, didn’t do it over the last seven, and now there’s a whole lot of tweaking going on.
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Duke is hardly Clemson, but the ACC team shouldn’t have a problem getting past a touchdown here.
Old Dominion is a bit more of a wild card.
I’m not totally buying into the idea that the offense is going to keep it all going after blowing through the Charlottes and FIUs of the world late last season – ODU lost 42-10 to West Forest to start the season, and 30-17 to Tulsa to end it.
There’s so much experience returning, though, and it’s a home game.
Virginia Tech doesn’t appear to be anything amazing right away against new head coach Brent Pry, and if you care about these things, ODU did beat the Hokies back in 2018 …
I’d like it more at Virginia Tech – 7, but it’s a lot better than the 10 it was at a few weeks ago.