The Virginia Tech football team will aim to snap a four-game skid when it travels to face No. 24 North Carolina State on Thursday night.
The Hokies (2-5, 1-3 ACC) have yet to win away from Lane Stadium this season. Meanwhile, the Wolfpack are 5-2 overall and 1-2 in the conference but a perfect 4-0 at home. The hosts are coming off of a 24-9 loss to a ranked Syracuse team.
Where to watch?
The game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday and will be airing nationally on ESPN.
What to know about Tech
They are playing for pride now. The results haven’t been there, so it wouldn’t be too shocking to see Jason Brown get some serious minutes to try and turn things around. He is a bit more dynamic in the sense of reading players and getting out of the pocket, which could open up some things for this Tech offense. Of course, the defense is going to have to play better. They are going to need to make some splash plays for them to really have a chance.
What to know about NC State
In the loss to the Orange, it was all about missed opportunities. They had seven penalties but 35 minutes of possession, not turning the ball over once. While they were 3-for-4 on fourth down, they went just 5-for-16 on third downs and averaged 3.7 yards per play. Be it missed assignments on offense or defense or simply just not showing enough grit and energy to fight for extra yardage, it was a poor performance, scoring just three field goals. Down 17-6, they didn’t mix things up enough on offense and were quite predictable. They’ll need to clean that up here.
Prediction
NC State 31, Virginia Tech 21