Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech Picks and Predictions: No Luck Needed for Irish

Virginia Tech has continued to watch its defense get beaten and it's unlikely to improve soon, with a Notre Dame team hungry to get back on track coming to visit. Find out if the Fighting Irish can rebound with our free college football betting picks.

Douglas Farmer - Betting Analyst at Covers
Douglas Farmer • Betting Analyst
Oct 9, 2021 • 15:35 ET • 4 min read
Kyren Williams Notre Dame Fighting Irish college football
Photo By - USA TODAY Sports

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish saw their CFP dreams rendered nothing but an illusion last week, but they'll need to regroup quickly as they head into Lane Stadium.

Hokies head coach Justin Fuente's job has seemingly been in the air for several seasons now but handing the Irish a second straight loss would do wonders for his security. 

Check out our free college football picks and predictions for Notre Dame vs. Virginia Tech on October 9.

Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech odds

Odds via the Covers Line, an average comprised of odds from multiple sportsbooks.

Notre Dame opened as a 1.5-point favorite, and by Friday morning, the most accurate depiction of that line would be a pick’em. A few books favor Virginia Tech by a point, a few still have the Irish with a 1-point edge, and a few others have given up trying to differentiate between the two. The total opened at 47.0 and remained there except for a brief midweek drop to 46.0.

Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right up until kickoff and be sure to check out the full college football odds before placing your bets.

Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech picks

Picks made on 10/8/2021 at 3:30 p.m. ET.
Click on each pick to jump to the full analysis.

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Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech game info

Location: Lane Stadium, Blacksburg, VA
Date: Saturday, October 9, 2021
Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
TV: ACC Network

Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech betting preview

Weather

Be sure to monitor the gametime conditions with our NCAA football weather info.

Key injuries

Notre Dame: Michael Mayer TE (Probable), Michael Carmody LT (Probable), Tosh Baker LT (Questionable), Kurt Hinish DT (Probable), Joe Wilkins WR (Out).
Virginia Tech: Emmanuel Belmar DL (Questionable), Jaylen Jones WR (Questionable), James Mitchell TE (Out), Changa Hodge WR (Out).
Find our latest NCAA football injury reports.

Betting trend to know

Notre Dame has fared well on the road against quality competition lately, going 6-0 ATS in its last six road games against teams with winning home records, a stretch that includes trips to North Carolina, Boston College, and Pittsburgh last year. Virginia Tech’s last six games have all gone Under the total, as have its last six home games. The Hokies have lost their last four games after idle weeks, while the Irish are 10-1 against their last 11 opponents coming off idle weeks, dating back to 2017. The one loss was just last week. Find more NCAA betting trends for Notre Dame vs. Virginia Tech.

Notre Dame vs Virginia Tech predictions

Shopping is important, and even if the consensus line is now a pick’em, it does not take much window shopping to find the Irish as a one-point underdog on Friday afternoon. Given Notre Dame kicker Jonathan Doerer missed his first extra point in nearly 200 attempts (197 straight, to be exact) last week, one never knows how important a point may be.

But this should not come down to a point after attempt. The Irish lost to a Top-5 team led by one of the country’s best quarterbacks; they were hardly exposed.

Notre Dame’s ground game has yet to find any semblance of consistent productivity, but Virginia Tech’s rush defense will be the worst it has faced to date. That is saying quite a bit, considering two of those defenses were Wisconsin’s and Toledo’s, the Nos. 1 and 4 rush defenses by expected points added per rush according to CFB-Graphs. Assuredly, the paltry Irish running game contributed to those sturdy rankings, but the chicken and egg argument exists for a reason. Some of Notre Dame’s struggles trace to those fronts.

The Hokies rank No. 114 in that rush defense category, meaning the Irish may finally find some offensive balance.

That should make life easier for whatever quarterback Brian Kelly starts. Kelly played it close to the vest in the weeklong debate between Jack Coan and Drew Pyne, though increasingly rhetoric seems to suggest Coan will start in the hostile road atmosphere, drawing on his 18 career starts at Wisconsin and his season-opening start at Florida State to keep the offense steady.

If it is instead Pyne, he will hardly surprise Virginia Tech after playing last week’s second half and most of the second half two weeks ago

Suggesting Notre Dame may find a ground game is not the same as suggesting Kyren Williams and Chris Tyree will break loose a la 2020. Any version of success will buoy the Irish offense as well as keep the middling Virginia Tech offense off the field. To date, Notre Dame has relied wholly on explosive plays to move the ball. Something more plodding may be a nice change of pace for a team trying to find a renewed identity.

Either way, the Hokies have simply struggled this year. Braxton Burmeister has only five touchdown passes through four games and averages just 186.5 passing yards per game. Without star tight end James Mitchell, that offense has become even more stagnant, part of why it has scored 23.5 points per game despite facing North Carolina’s porous defense, Middle Tennessee State’s lack of defense, and FCS-level Richmond.

A charitable analysis will tout this Under because of stout defensive play, but against these two inconsistent offenses, stout defensive play occurs by happenstance.

College football parlays

Did you know that if you parlayed our Notre Dame vs. Virginia Tech picks, you could win $26.45 on a $10 bet?

Use our college football parlay calculator to create your own parlays and see their potential payouts.

Where can I bet on college football odds?

You can bet on college football odds at every online and casino sportsbook, including NCAA moneylines, spreads, Over/Under totals, and a ton of college football prop odds. Head over to our best football betting sites for the top spots to bet on college football odds in your area.

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Douglas Farmer
Betting Analyst

Douglas Farmer spends his days thinking about college football and his nights thinking about the NBA. His betting habits and coverage follow that same pattern. He covered Notre Dame football for various outlets from 2008 to 2024, most notably spending eight seasons as NBC Sports’ beat writer on the Irish. That was also when his gambling focus took off. Knowing there were veteran beat writers with three decades more experience than he had, Douglas found his niche by best recognizing Notre Dame’s standing in each year’s national landscape, a complex tapestry most easily understood and remembered via betting odds.

In 2021, that interest created a freelance opportunity with Covers, a role that eventually led to Douglas joining the company full-time in 2023. In the fall, Douglas will place five or six dozen bets each week, a disproportionate amount via BetRivers because the operator tends to have lines slightly different than the rest of the market. The same can be said of Circa Sports’ futures markets.

While Douglas is an avid NBA fan and covers the league throughout the year, the vast majority of his bets are on college football, because that is the biggest key to sports betting: Know what you do not know.

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