Home Game Preview: Virginia Tech faces NC State looking to break four-game skid
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Game Preview: Virginia Tech faces NC State looking to break four-game skid

Roger Gonzalez
virginia tech football entrance
Photo courtesy Virginia Tech Athletics.

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

Roger Gonzalez

Roger Gonzalez

Roger Gonzalez is freelancer for Augusta Free Press. A native of Connecticut that grew up in Charlottesville, he is a graduate of Virginia Tech. He currently is a sportswriter with CBS Sports and has written for The Daily Progress, The Roanoke Times and other newspapers before getting into the digital sports journalism world.