Matt Campbell said this week that his team this year is the best team he’s ever coached, which isn’t all that surprising considering they’re 9th in the country in net yards per play (+2.7). Meanwhile, West Virginia is 71st in net yards per play (-0.1). Iowa State has underperformed this season with a close call to Northern Iowa & losses to Iowa and Baylor. They seemed to get right against TCU last week, and I like them to keep the momentum rolling into Morgantown.

West Virginia did play Texas tough last week and could’ve won or at least made the final score closer if it weren’t for a plethora of turnovers from QB Austin Kendall (4 INTs). WVU was off a bye week though, and it was a game West Virginia really wanted to win after stirring up “horns downs” in attempts to make Texas a rival. WVU now has a normal week of prep with Oklahoma on deck.

The Texas game last week closed above -10, and Iowa State is a better team than Texas (14th in SP+ vs 20th), especially defensively (19th vs 66th).  I don’t understand why this Iowa State line is lower, but I’ll bite. West Virginia has played incredibly hard for new HC Neal Brown thus far, and while I could see them keeping it close early, Iowa State should pull away & win by 2 TD’s here. Also, West Virginia is missing starting WR Sean Ryan (already thin unit) and are starting a true freshman at safety due to JoVanni Stewart quitting the team last week.•    Since Campbell took over in 2016, Iowa State is 20-9 ATS (69%) against in-conference teams & 11-7 ATS as the away team (61.1%).

 

 

Follow Alex on Twitter @AlexSims412

College Football YTD: 14-4-2, +9.7 units