West Virginia vs. Connecticut

Written by Steve Janus

This Friday the Connecticut Huskies will look for their first Big East Conference win when they host the West Virginia Mountaineers. The Huskies were blown out on the road last week, losing 26-0 at Louisville, while the Mountaineers were stunned at home, losing 19-14 to Syracuse. The Mountaineers have won all six of the previous meetings between these two schools, including a 28-24 win last year. If you are thinking about placing a bet on the game this weekend, the current college football odds have the Mountaineers favored by 6.5-points over the Huskies on the road.

West Virginia (5-2, 1-1 Big East): Definitely not the outcome I expected last week against Syracuse, a team that was blown out of the stadium on the road the previous week by Pittsburgh 45-14. While the defense didn’t play great in the loss, it was the offense that let this team down on Saturday. Quarterback Geno Smith was sacked five times and threw three first half interceptions. Smith finished 20 of 37 for just 178 yards, with only one touchdown pass.

Noel Devine provided most of the offense for the Mountaineers with 122 yards on 24 carries, but was unable to find the end zone. Backup Ryan Clarke scored the only other points for West Virginia one yard touchdown run with 1:55 left in the first quarter. After Clarke’s touchdown, the Mountaineers failed to score on their final 10 possessions of the game, while Syracuse kicked three field goals to take home the win.

This week the Mountaineers go up against a Huskies team that has lost their last two games, but are heading home where they are a perfect 3-0 on the season. West Virginia should have a much easier time moving the ball against the Huskies defense, but can’t afford to turn the ball over on the road if they want to avoid falling to 1-2 in conference play.

Connecticut (3-4, 0-2 Big East): After suffering a tough loss on the road last week to Rutgers, the Huskies had one of their worst showing of the season at Louisville, as they were shutout for the first time since 2005 when they lost 24-0 at Pittsburgh. The Huskies were dominated in all aspects of the game. They turned the ball over three times, gave up a 74-yard punt return for a touchdown, and were dominated in time of possession, as the Cardinals held the ball for nearly 15 more minutes.

Running back Jordan Todman came in averaging 152 yards a game one the ground, but couldn’t get anything going against a tough Louisville defense that allowed Todman just 80 yards on 19 carries. The Orange ran for 183 yards against the Mountaineers last week, and I believe if Connecticut is going to win this game they are going to need a big time performance out of Todman, as they simply don’t have the talent to move the ball in the passing game.

Looking at the Odds: I believe your money has to be on the Mountaineers to cover the 6.5-point spread in this game. The Mountainneers are going to be hungry after their disappointing loss last week, and their defense is still very good and should be able to scheme up a plan to keep Todman in check. It appears pretty clear that the Huskies offense can’t do anything if Todman struggles on the ground. Also I think the Mountaineers are going to move the football with pretty good success against an average Connecticut defense. My final score prediction is West Virginia 27, Connecticut 13

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