The West Virginia Mountaineers lost to the Virginia Tech Hokies to start their regular season. The result was a big setback for a team which had high expectations this year. Does this mean West Virginia is in trouble on a Big 12 road trip to Kansas?
Details
Odds: Mountaineers -21
Date & Time: Saturday September 23, 12:00 PM ET
Location: Memorial Stadium, Lawrence, KS
Broadcast: ESPNU
Reasons To Bet On The West Virginia Mountaineers
The main thing to realize about this game is that Kansas football is not heading in a clear upward direction. The program is stagnant at best, offering no clear sign that it has improved from 2016. Hopes were high in Lawrence when KU finally beat Texas for the first time since before World War II. The Jayhawks have had a long struggle just trying to win even one Big 12 game. The moment felt like a huge achievement for Kansas, a late-season springboard into 2017.
That has plainly not happened.
Kansas has been pounded each of the past two weeks – once at home and once on the road – by teams from the Mid-American Conference. Central Michigan and Ohio are not terrible teams, but they do come from a smaller conference with less talented and explosive athletes than almost every Power Five conference school. Against most power schools, CMU and Ohio would be beaten soundly, but Kansas isn’t typical of a power school. The Jayhawks remain an exception, unable to take care of business and establish a modest standard of competence.
Kansas is an atrocious team, and since West Virginia has a seasoned veteran quarterback in Will Grier – a transfer from the University of Florida – the Mountaineers have a leader who should not allow them to lose focus or play a sloppy offensive game. Grier is the safety guard, the player who will prevent any sort of letdown against an inferior opponent.
Reasons To Bet On The Kansas Jayhawks
The West Virginia defense was consistently out of position against Virginia Tech. Justin Fuente, who used to be an offensive assistant coach at TCU, found lots of holes in the Mountaineers’ defense. He is no longer on the TCU staff, but another man is intensely familiar with West Virginia’s offensive methods. Doug Meacham was the offensive coordinator at TCU, but he moved to Kansas before this season, a surprising development for a guy who was reportedly interested in becoming a collegiate head coach at North Texas in recent years. Meacham’s decision to stay in the conference but switch schools raised eyebrows. At any rate, Meacham’s knowledge of the Big 12 will help him scheme against West Virginia. This could give Kansas a surprising amount of success on offense.
It’s not as though Kansas has been bad on offense – defense has been the problem, but KU scored 30 points last week against Ohio. If the Jayhawks can score 30 in this game and West Virginia is not sharp, an upset could happen.
Outlook
The difference in talent between these teams is enormous. Kansas has not made the improvements people inside the program expected. Grier is a quality quarterback who will not allow West Virginia’s level of play to slip. This should work out well for WVU, and terribly for Kansas. The only question here is will they cover the huge spread? Remember that Kansas is at home for this one but that hasn’t meant much. This is a team that lost to Central Michigan at home a couple of weeks ago, giving up 45 points in the process. They also lost last week at Ohio, giving up 42 points. If this team is allowing 40+ to so-so non-power conference schools, what is West Virginia going to do to them? West Virginia has scored 50+ points in back-to-back weeks and looks like a good bet to do so again. That being the case, lay the three touchdowns as they should run away with this one. It’s a big number but we like them to cover it at the end of the day.
Prediction: West Virginia -21
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