The Cal Golden Bears host the Virginia Tech Hokies on Saturday afternoon. The biggest story in this game is the health of Cal’s star quarterback, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele, who left last week’s game with a head injury and is in concussion protocol. Expect that story to remain unresolved most of the week, maybe right up until kickoff. With the possibility of Cal starting a backup QB, they are fairly substantial underdogs at home. I think that is probably a mistake, given the offensive system the Bears run, and even with a backup, they might find enough success to keep this game close. I’ll take the points with Cal, recognizing that this line is going to shift once we have word on Sagapolutele’s status.
Virginia Tech is much improved under James Franklin, but let’s still recognize that Franklin is a defense-first coach. He does not run the kind of system that blows out opponents. It is also the case that teams making these cross-country conference trips often struggle. Tech struggled to contain a pass-heavy Pitt team last week, and that might happen again with a similar opponent this week. Let’s take the Bears to keep this one close.
Virginia Tech vs Cal prediction: California Golden Bears +9.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable to +7.5.
