Win Total Wednesday: The Hokies Are No Joke-y

Greg Atkins. Shutterstock Images.

Win Total Wednesday is back and it couldn't come fast enough. Just as the allure of summer wears off a little, you realize you  are stuck sweating your balls off in mid July and you start to dream about those brisk nights in fall watching your favorite team or favorite bet taking snaps on the gridiron. Football season is what we set our clock to. Football is what is the heartbeat of the country. Football is what we get excited for. 

Off season preparation begins the minute the magazines come out, and one of my favorite things to do is look at who will exceed or fall short of expectations for the upcoming season. I love to take a look at conference long shots,  sleepers, and season win totals. We got a little tradition going on Picks Central where we pick a team each week and pick their win total Over or Under. 

The first one up for me is:

Virginia Tech Over 8 wins -130 via Draftkings (#DKPartner)

There's a lot to like with this Hokies team. The first of which is returning production and returning starters. The Hokies bring back 8 on offense, and 7 on defense. It's important to touch on who those returning starters are. Like QB Kyron Drones who had 2,084 passing yards along with a 17 TD - 3 int ratio. He has dynamic legs and was the team's second leading rusher with 818 yards and 5 TD. 

It doesn't stop there. 

Also back:

RB Bhaysul Tuten - 863 rush yards and 10 TD last year , WR's DA'Quan Felton 667 yards and 8 TD, Jaylin Lane 538 yards and 6 TD. 

The defense includes 5 of 7 leading tacklers. LB Keli Lawson (80 tackles), Safety Jalen Stroman (55 tackles), CB Mansoor Delane (54 tackles), Safety Keonta Jenkins (50 tackles) and DL Antwaun Powell-Ryland (40 tackles / 9.5 sacks). A solid core of a squad that allowed 318 yards a game, 15th best in the nation. 

As always the schedule is what I will bank on with these totals, and there's a lot to love. 

The non conference is @ Vanderbilt predicted dead last in the SEC, Marshall projected to be in the middle of the pack of the Sun Belt, @ Old Dominion projected dead last in their division of the Sun Belt. and Rutgers projected to be 10th in the Big Ten. Let's be safe and call that 3-1, even though it's VERY likely they will roll out 4-0 into conference play. 

Within conference play, @ Miami and Clemson will be very difficult and for this exercise… losses. 

The rest of the conference schedule is @Stanford , BC, GA Tech, Cuse, @ Duke, and Virginia- not really murderers row as they are predicted 17th, 13th, 9th, 10th, 16th and 11th in the preseason mags. Very hard not to assume a 6-0 run. 

Head Coach Brent Pry is high on the maturity of the returning players, and I'm high on their skill level. I think VA Tech can be in the mix to sneak into the ACC Title game the way their schedule plays out. That home game vs Clemson will be jumping if the Hokies are 8-1 going into it. I love this win total and love this team's upside. Sign me up for the win total OVER 8.