Virginia Tech vs Stanford: Hokies Close as Near Double-Digit Favorites as Kickoff Nears

Will Virginia Tech rebound from the loss to Miami and defeat Stanford on the road?

Sep 27, 2024; Miami Gardens, Florida, USA; Virginia Tech Hokies quarterback Kyron Drones (1) runs with the football against the Miami Hurricanes during the second quarter at Hard Rock Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Sam Navarro-Imagn Images / Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Virginia Tech is on the road today against Stanford and the Hokies are looking to bounce back from their loss to Miami. Virginia Tech has been a favorite all week and with kickoff nearly an hour away, the Hokies are 9.5 point favorites according to Fanduel Sportsbook. The total for this game is set at 48.5.

ESPN"s Pete Thamel reported earlier this afternoon that Stanford is going to be starting Justin Lamson today at quarterback.

Sources: Stanford will start Justin Lamson today at quarterback against Virginia Tech. Starting QB Ashton Daniels is expected to be available. pic.twitter.com/qdhvAqtugy

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) October 5, 2024

Here's how you can watch, listen to, and follow along with today's matchup between the Hokies and Stanford.

TV: ACC Network

• Play-by-play: Chris Cotter

• Analyst: Mark Herzlich

• Sideline Reporter: Coley Harvey

• Mobile App: SlingTV, Fubo, ESPN

• Online: ESPN.com, ESPN mobile app, GETACCN.com

Radio: Virginia Tech Sports Network

• Play-by-Play: Bill Roth

• Analyst: Mike Burnop

• Sideline Reporter: Zach Mackey

• In Blacksburg: ESPN Blacksburg (93.1 FM, 97.1 FM, 105.9 FM, 810 AM)

• Across the DMV: Visit HokieSports.com for station affiliate list

• Mobile Apps: Virginia Tech HokieSports, TuneIn, 106.7 The Fan, Audacy

• Online: ESPNBlacksburg.com, hokiesports.com

• Live Stats: HokieSports.com

This has not been the start that the Hokies wanted to the season, but they have a chance to start to get things back on track if they can win on Saturday. While they did lose to Miami last week, the Hokies showed signs of being the team that was getting so much hype at the beginning of the year. They were running the ball very well, getting pressure on the quarterback, and forcing turnovers against one of the nation's best offenses. The question will be if the Hokies can put the ending of last week's game behind them and go to the West Coast and get a win against a Stanford team that has been competitive in every game they have played this year.

Virginia Tech is the favorite coming into this game and Bleacher Report's David Kenyon has the Hokies winning, but by a closer margin than the spread would have you believe. Kenyon is projecting a 31-28 win for the Hokies.

Bill Connelly's SP+ has Virginia winning by nine points on Saturday. SP+ is projecting that Virginia Tech wins by a score of 32-23 and it gives the Hokies a 72% chance to win the game on Saturday.

What exactly is SP+? Here is how Connelly himself describes it:

"As always, these are based on three primary factors: returning production (final rankings for which you can find at the bottom of this piece), recent recruiting and recent history. How good have you been recently? Whom do you have coming back? How good are the players replacing those you don't have coming back? That's loosely what we ask when we're setting expectations for a team; it's also what these projections attempt to do objectively.

As always: SP+ is a tempo- and opponent-adjusted measure of college football efficiency. It is a predictive measure of the most sustainable and predictable aspects of football, not a résumé ranking, and, along those same lines, these projections aren't intended to be a guess at what the AP Top 25 will look like at the end of the year. These are simply early offseason power rankings based on the information we have been able to gather to date."