Florida State -7 2.2% Play
Florida State embarks on a new era under Head Coach Willie Taggart. Taggart will bring a new offense that is focused on speed, and more plays. One would think this may be very challenging at the start of a season and it might take Florida State a little to really get in gear with this offense, but the system is meant to be simple and easy to run. Deondre Francois is the perfect guy to run it and he has a ton of experience around him with 8 returning starters on the offense. He's got some really good receivers led by Nyqwan Murray, and Cam Akers at RB is a star in the making.
While Florida State's biggest question mark on offense is the new spread up-tempo attack, Virginia Tech has bigger questions. The talent and experience is at least there for Florida State, but with Virginia Tech they have sophomore Joshua Jackson in his second year surrounded by a young supporting cast. Virginia Tech's defense, is in rebuilding mode, and Jackson really did not perform on the road last year in ACC play where he had 2 passing TD's in 4 games to 4 INT's. That came against the likes of BC, Miami, Georgia Tech and Virginia. Those 4 teams all had good passing defenses, but Florida State is right in the mix ranking 14th last year and could be better this year. The Virginia Tech offense scored 23, 10, 22, and 10 points in those games and we could see a similar point total tonight around the 16.25 point average, which would lead to a Florida State cover.
Florida State's offense is going to play faster so a spread of 7 points is more like 4 or 4.5 and Taggart has proven in the past that his system is simplistic. Oregon put up 77 points in their first game running it last year, and they really didn't have the right QB to run it. I do expect to see some rust early from Francois, but his teammates around him will pick him up and he'll feed off the energy of the Florida State crowd.
