NCAAF Thursday Night Straight Wager

By Don Phillips

Virginia Tech Hokies (4-5) 5th ACC COAST (2-3)  @ Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (3-6) 7th ACC COAST (1-5)

Bobby Dodd Stadium at Historic Grant Field
Atlanta, GA
Morning clouds. Mild. 66 °F, Wind: 11.80 mph/W

Thursday, November 12, 2015 – 7:30 pm ET
TV: ESPN
Avg. Yds (Rk) Category Avg. Yds (Rk)
211.6 (77th) Pass Off. 135.3 (114th)
161.7 (79th) Rush Off. 267.9 (8th)
179.1 (16th) Pass Def. 192.6 (27th)
166.3 (65th) Rush Def. 172.4 (73rd)
Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech will meet for the 13th time overall and the seventh time in Atlanta. It is the sixth time that the Yellow Jackets and Hokies clash on a Thursday night. The teams played on Thursday nights in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2013 Virginia Tech leads the all-time series 8-4 and holds a 4-2 lead in Atlanta.

Georgia Tech has scored 20+ points in 19 straight ACC games, which is the conference’s longest active streak by a wide margin. The Yellow Jackets’ streak began in 2013, following a 17-10 setback versus Virginia Tech. No other league team owns a current streak that extends beyond this season. Only Ohio State’s streak of scoring 20+ points in 27 straight Big Ten games is longer among Power 5 programs. Tech has scored less than 20 points just 10 times in
the 62 conference games (16%) under Paul Johnson — seven of those came during Johnson’s first three seasons on The Flats.

True freshman Marcus Marshall earned his first career start at B-back against Pitt and validated it with a game-high 159 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Marshall was named the ACC Rookie of the Week for his efforts against Pitt. He became Tech’s first ACC Rookie of the Week honoree since QB Jaybo Shaw in 2008. The other Yellow Jackets to have earned Rookie of the Week awards are RB Jonathan Dwyer (2007), RB Rashaun Grant (2004) and WR Calvin Johnson four times in 2004. • He did his damage on just 10 carries, averaging 15.9 yards per rush, including two different carries of 58 yards.

Marshall’s 526 yards rushing this season are the most by a true freshman running back under Paul Johnson and his 65.8 yards per game rank eighth in the ACC. In Tech’s season opener, Marshall rushed for 184 yards and two touchdowns.

This season has now seen 11 Hokies make their first collegiate starts during the 2015, with the latest being red-shirt-sophomore Anthony Shegog, who started his first game of his career at Boston College on Oct. 31. Through nine games, Tech’s offensive line has certainly become a source of stability for the team. Consider this, only six players have started every game this year on offense and four of them are on the line. In fact, except for the NC State game, the five positions have all featured the same starters (Wyatt Teller did not start versus the Wolfpack, but did play 64 of 68 plays) and they are certainly building for the future Only right tackle Wade Hansen is a senior, and through some realignment is spelled by true freshman Yosuah Nijman, for almost 200 plays this year.

• Yellow Jackets are 4-0 ATS in their last 4 games in November.
• Yellow Jackets are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a bye week.
• Yellow Jackets are 7-2 ATS in their last 9 home games.
• Yellow Jackets are 17-8-2 ATS vs. a team with a losing record.

Selection: Georgia Tech -3

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