College Football Picks: North Carolina at Georgia Tech Odds and Predictions

The North Carolina Tar Heels will try and snap a four-game losing streak to the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets this upcoming Saturday afternoon at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The kickoff for this ACC matchup slated for noon (ET), and the game will be broadcast nationally on ESPN.

The Tar Heels opened the season with a 27-10 loss to No. 12 South Carolina as 11-point road underdogs and followed it up with a 40-20 rout of Middle Tennessee as 19.5-point home favorites the following week. They will be coming off a bye heading into this Saturday’s matchup.

Georgia Tech rolled over Division I-AA Elon on opening day 70-0 as a 44-point home favorite and, after a bye week of its own, hammered Duke 38-14 it is ACC opener this past Saturday as an 8.5-point favorite on the road.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech Storylines

The one thing that North Carolina has been able to do very well in its first two games is move the ball through the air behind quarterback Bryn Renner. He has thrown for 533 yards and two touchdowns while completing 63.6 percent of his attempts.

He has also done an excellent job of spreading the ball around, with 12 different players catching at least one pass in the first two games.

The rushing attack is averaging 116.5 yards a game behind Romar Morris and A.J. Blue. Morris has 115 yards on 25 attempts while Blue has rushed for 81 yards on 18 carries. The Tar Heels’ defense is allowing an average of 23.5 points a game, but the majority of the points against the Blue Raiders came in the fourth quarter when the game was already out of hand.

The Yellow Jackets have been chewing up yardage on the ground in their first two outings. They are currently ranked third in the nation in rushing with an average of 356 yards a game.

The workhorse in this offense has been quarterback Vad Lee. He has thrown the ball for 314 yards and six touchdowns while adding another 125 yards and two scores with his legs. Georgia Tech is as deep as it comes in the running game with 14 different players carrying the ball so far.

Robert Godhigh and Micheal Summers have led the way in the passing game with a combined eight receptions for 162 yards. DeAndre Smelter has two touchdowns on three receptions, and David Sims’s only catch of the season was for 59 yards and a score, so there is some proven big-play capability in this receiving corps.

The Yellow Jackets’ defense has allowed only 14 points this season, but it has yet to be tested against a team that can throw the ball.

North Carolina at Georgia Tech Betting Odds and Trends (from 5Dimes)

Point Spread: Georgia Tech -6.5

Total Line: 61

The Tar Heels are 8-3 straight up in their last 11 games overall but just 2-8 SU in their last 10 games on the road. The total has stayed “under” in three of their last four games.

The Yellow Jackets are 6-2 SU in their last eight games and a perfect 4-0 against the spread in their last four. The total has stayed under in five of their last six games.

Head-to-head in this ACC Coastal Division showdown, Georgia Tech is 5-0 SU in the last five meetings at home and 4-2 ATS in the last six games played at Bobby Dodd Stadium. The total has gone “over” in five of those six contests.

College Football Picks: North Carolina at Georgia Tech Betting Predictions

Right off the bat, I like a play on the over as both teams have an offense that can put points on the board, and the recent trends in this series favor a high-scoring game. Last season these two combined for 118 points in a 68-50 Georgia Tech win as an eight-point road favorite.

While I do not expect another basketball score like that this time around, I do see both teams putting up enough points to take this game over the total.

Take: North Carolina vs. Georgia Tech Over the 61-point total (noon, Saturday, Sept. 14)