Bowl Picks: Virginia Tech Vs. Stanford

The Virginia Tech Hokies, champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference, square off with the one-loss Stanford Cardinal in the 75^th Orange Bowl game. This is Virginia Tech’s fourth Orange Bowl. The Hokies dropped their first two appearances in 1996 and 2008 before winning the 2009 game against the Cincinnati Bearcats 20-7. This is Stanford’s first appearance in the game, and the first time they’ve faced Virginia Tech. Last year’s Orange Bowl was a 24-14 victory for the Iowa Hawkeyes versus the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

The Stanford Cardinal are led into the game by junior quarterback Andrew Luck, a Heisman finalist and widely considered the first overall pick in the NFL draft should he leave college. Luck has led the Cardinal to an 11-1 record, good for second place in the Pac-10, by overseeing an offense that averages over forty points per game. In the process, he’s piled up 28 touchdowns and over three thousand yards of passing. He will face off against a trademark Virginia Tech defense which routinely holds opponents under twenty points per game. Despite dropping the first two games of the season (including a loss to FCS team James Madison University), the Hokies have won eleven straight and enter the Orange Bowl as one of the hottest teams in college football.
- SBN Pittsburgh analysis by Aaron Hawley

SBN PITTSBURGH BOLD PREDICTION: Stanford 23, Virginia Tech 10

Analyst Projections
Aaron - Stanford
Anson - Virginia Tech
Jeff - Virginia Tech

From ESPN:

ACC champion Virginia Tech, which became the first FBS program to win 11 straight games after starting the season 0-2, will face a Stanford program that believes it is the best one-loss team in the country and has made its case with three shutouts and a Heisman-contending quarterback in Andrew Luck. -- Heather Dinich