College Football Week 9 Odds: Predicting Top Bets Against the Spread
The North Carolina Tar Heels are one of a few college football teams in desperate need of a bounce-back victory in Week 9.
The Tar Heels fell from the ranks of the unbeaten in Week 8 with a horrific loss as a 23.5-point favorite at home against the Virginia Cavaliers.
Drake Maye and Co. must respond with a strong performance against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets to keep any glimmer of an ACC title hope alive going into November.
UNC is one of four teams with one loss in ACC play entering Week 9. The Virginia Tech Hokies are surprisingly among that group of teams.
The Hokies host the Syracuse Orange on Thursday night in a game that could boost their ACC Championship Game hopes even more.
For the latest lines on these games, go to DraftKings.
Saturday, 8 p.m. ET, ACC Network
North Carolina belongs in the same category as the Penn State Nittany Lions and USC Trojans in Week 9.
All three power-conference teams need victories to erase a brutal Week 8 performance from their memories.
UNC suffered the worst loss of the trio, as it had no business losing at home to Virginia.
Saturday's struggles against UVA may turn bettors away from the Tar Heels, but they reside in the perfect spot to bounce back.
Georgia Tech is one of the more confounding teams in the FBS. The Yellow Jackets have a win over the Miami Hurricanes from a last-second debacle that went in their favor, but they also have home losses to the Bowling Green Falcons and Boston College Eagles.
The Yellow Jackets can't be trusted at the moment, and their defense that averages 452.7 yards allowed per game, could be torched by a frustrated Maye.
The UNC quarterback has been fantastic in every game, except for the loss to UVA, and he should take full advantage of Georgia Tech's porous defense on the way to a multi-touchdown win that gets his team back on track.
Thursday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN
Few people expected Virginia Tech to be in the mix for the ACC Championship Game entering the final week of October.
The Hokies could be in even better shape after Week 9 with a win over Syracuse. That would leave them, UNC and the Duke-Louisville winner on one loss in ACC play behind the Florida State Seminoles.
Virginia Tech should benefit from its home crowd inside Lane Stadium on Thursday night to get past Syracuse.
The Hokies won both of their ACC home games by double digits over the Pittsburgh Panthers and Wake Forest Demon Deacons, two teams in the middle of the league standings.
Syracuse is coming off a bye after running through a three-game gauntlet against UNC, Florida State and the Clemson Tigers.
The Orange offered very little on offense during that stretch, as they produced a total of 24 points while allowing over 30 points to each opponent.
Syracuse has not gotten good quarterback play out of Garrett Shrader, who has a single multi-touchdown performance through the air against FBS opposition.
Shrader could struggle inside the raucous cauldron of noise in Blacksburg, and that could help the Hokies emerge victorious with a chance to push for the ACC title game in November.
Saturday, 5 p.m. ET, ESPN+
The South Alabama Jaguars are one of the hottest teams at the Group of Five level.
USA outscored its last two opponents by a combined score of 110-10.
Those victories came against the two worst teams in the Sun Belt West, and the confidence gained from those triumphs should help them against the Louisiana Ragin' Cajuns.
Louisiana is 1-2 in Sun Belt play and it has a freshman quarterback in Zeon Chriss going through some growing pains.
Chriss threw all five of his interceptions over the last four games, including two multi-pick outings against the Buffalo Bulls and Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The Louisiana offense could struggle against a South Alabama defense that is in tremendous form at the moment.
Only so much stock can be put into South Alabama's last two games, but its defense has been trending in the right direction for the last month. That unit held the Oklahoma State Cowboys to seven points in a road win in Stillwater on September 16.
South Alabama should produce one or two turnovers against the young Louisiana quarterback, and that should allow its offense to find the end zone at will for the third consecutive week.
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