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Bristol Motor Speedway is the site for Saturday night’s border clash between the ACC’s Virginia Tech Hokies and the SEC’s Tennessee Volunteers in front of the largest crowd ever for a college football game. The Battle at Bristol is set to kickoff at 8 p.m. (ET) and the game will be broadcast nationally on ABC.
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Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee Game Overview
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A new era of football got underway at Virginia Tech this past Saturday when the Hokies took the field against Liberty with Justin Fuente as their new head coach in place of retired coaching legend Frank Beamer. The result was a 36-13 victory, but they came nowhere close to covering as 32-point home favorites. There was no posted total line for this game. Virginia Tech was coming off a straight-up 7-6 record in 2015 with a 6-7 mark against the spread.
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Jarod Evans got the start at quarterback for the Hokies in the season opener and he went on to complete 20-of-32 passes for 221 yards and four touchdown throws. He also led the team in rushing with 46 yards as part of an overall ground game that racked up a total of 206 yards. Liberty was no match for Virginia Tech’s defense with a total of 160 yards of offense on the day.
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Tennessee opened its new season with great expectations as the No. 9 ranked team in the AP’s preseason Top 25, but it needed overtime to get past Appalachian State 20-13 as a 21.5-point favorite at home. The total stayed UNDER the closing 58-point line. The Volunteers went 9-4 SU last season after winning their final six games. They were 8-5 ATS with the total going OVER in seven of the 13 games.
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Trailing by 10 points at halftime, Tennessee was able to tie the game in the fourth quarter on a 68-yard pass play from Joshua Dobbs to Josh Malone. The game ended in overtime when running back Jalen Hurd recovered a Dobbs’ fumble in the end zone. The close call cost the Volunteers some major ground in the new AP poll with a drop all the way to No. 17. Dobbs ended the day with 192 yards passing while completing 16-of-29 attempts. Hurd carried the ball 28 times for 110 yards as part of Tennessee’s total of 192 yards on the ground.
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Virginia Tech vs. Tennessee Game Betting Trends
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The Hokies are 7-17-2 ATS in their last 26 nonconference games and they are 5-15-1 ATS in their last 21 games played in September. The total has gone OVER in four of their last five games against the SEC.
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The Volunteers are 1-4 ATS in their last five games against the ACC, but they have covered in their last four neutral-site games. The total has gone OVER in their last six games played at a neutral site.
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These two met twice in bowl games since 2004 with each team winning once both SU and ATS. The total went OVER in both of those games.
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