Orange Bowl
Virginia Tech -3
I really like the favorite tonight. Virginia Techs defense is arguably the
best in the country, and is unbelievably fast. I think they create tons of problems for Kansas tonight. Kansas has been
awfully good offensively, but they've played no one all year. The best ranked defense they faced, Missouri, was average at best and ranked 59th in the nation. They played 3 teams in their conference that ranked below 100th in the nation, 103 Oklahoma St, 112 Nebraska, and 109 Baylor. That, combined with an
awful non conference schedule that included games vs. 105 Flor Int, 108 Central Mich, division 1 AA SE Louisiana and 101 Toledo. Collectively, they're schedule and their offense faced teams that ranked on average 89th on defense. I can't factor in SE Louisiana into the equation because they're not a Division 1 team. So while this team put up
monster numbers on offense, they did it against some serious swiss cheese defense.
Now enter Virginia Tech, ranked 5th in the nation on total defense, and 2nd on scoring defense. This team
flies to the ball and we're talking about men playing against boys. They're going to be
bigger and faster at every matchup while they're on defense. While Virginia Tech
struggled this year offensively, they definitely got better as the year wore on. They scored 40, 44, 33 and 30 points in their last 4 games, games against Florida St, Miami, Virginia and Boston College. All those teams ranked above 37 on defense, far better than what Kansas offense faced. They've had a solid month to put in some wrinkles and give their young QB's more opportunities to shine here.
And lets not forget Virginia Techs special teams. They're always tops in the nation and they are once again this year. Virginia Tech has the way
better defense, the way
better special teams and are only laying a short price here. And lets look at this years history of teams making their first BCS Bowl game. Both Illinois and Hawaii were new to the BCS scene, and they showed they didn't belong. This is the
exact same scenario tonight. Kansas has been in 2 bowl games in the past 5 years, Dec. 22nd and Dec 23rd bowl games,
garbage bowls played before Xmas. They're taking on a much bigger role tonight, a role their not at all familiar with. As for Virginia Tech, they've played in 2 BCS Bowl games in the past 3 years, they've been here and played on the big stage before. I think we have the makings of another blow out game.
Lay the 3 tonight.
