Liberty vs Virginia Tech 11/19/22 College Football Picks, Predictions, Odds

The Liberty Flames and Virginia Tech Hokies clash Saturday in week 12 college football action from Williams Stadium.

The Virginia Tech Hokies will be out to snap a seven-game losing skid after a 24-7 loss to Duke last time out. Grant Wells has thrown for 2,023 yards, 9 touchdowns and 9 interceptions on 58.3% passing while Keshawn King leads the Hokies with 365 rushing yards and 3 scores. Jalen Holston, Chance Black and Malachi Thomas each have 100+ rushing yards as well this season. Kaleb Smith has a team-high 669 receiving yards and 36 receptions while five more Hokies have 100+ receiving yards as well this season. On defense, Dax Hollifield has a team-high 76 total tackles including 30 solo tackles while Armani Chatman has an interception and the Hokie defense as a unit has 18 combined sacks as well this year.

The Liberty Flames will hope to rebound from a 36-33 loss to UConn in their last game. Johnathan Bennett has thrown for 1,364 yards, 12 touchdowns and 9 picks on 58.5% passing this season. Dae Dae Hunter has a team-high 821 rushing yards with 8 touchdowns but is out indefinitely due to injury while Shedro Louis has 390 rushing yards and 7 scores as well this season. Demario Douglas leads Liberty’s receiving group with 56 grabs for 830 yards and 5 touchdowns while Noah Frith has 18 catches for 333 receiving yards this season. On defense, Ahmad Walker. has a team-high 58 total tackles and Durrell Johnson has a team-high 7 sacks this season. Dennis Osagiede also has 6 sacks and TreShaun Clark has 4 sacks as part of Liberty’s 34 sacks as a team this season. Robert Rahimi also has 5 interceptions as part of Liberty’s 14 interceptions this season.

Virginia Tech is 2-12 ATS in their last 14 non-conference games and 1-4 ATS in their last 5 games following an ATS win while the under is 6-1 in their last 7 games following an ATS loss. Liberty is 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games against a team with a losing record and 17-8 ATS in their last 25 non-conference games while the under is 4-1 in their last 5 home games against a team with a losing road record.

I get the reasoning for backing an underdog in some spots, but the Hokies just have not been good offensively and even with Liberty down their best running back the Flames are still the more explosive offense and can run circles around the Hokies. Liberty got caught with their pants down against UConn and I expect a fully focused and concerted effort from the Flames here to get a double-digit win and cover here.