NCAAF Week 4 West Virginia at Oklahoma State Betting Preview
18th Ranked Cowboys Play 2nd Straight at Home
West Virginia at Oklahoma State betting sees a couple of 1-0 teams meeting up Saturday in Stillwater. OSU kind of sputtered last week but scored a 16-7 win over Tulsa as -24 point favorites nonetheless. The Mountaineers have had an extra week to prepare for this Big 12 opener after thumping FCS opponent Eastern Kentucky 56-10 two weeks ago as -43 favorites.
Oklahoma State is a -6.5 favorite ahead of this matchup and will have a slight home field advantage with around 15,000 fans in attendance at T. Boone Pickens Stadium. Oklahoma State won this meeting 20-13 at Morgantown last season, but pushed as -7 road favorites. The total in the 2019 matchup went well under the 56, but is just 50.5 for Saturday’s game.
West Virginia Largely an Unknown
It’s been a weird lead up to the 2020 college football season but West Virginia started off right with a 56-10 win over Eastern Kentucky. The opener served as a scrimmage of sorts for Neal Brown’s team who has admitted that he’s circled September 26th on the calendar as the opener.
The good things WVU can take out of their win two weeks ago was that the team started strong, taking a 42-7 lead into halftime. West Virginia was even able to cover the whopping -43 point spread in the 56-10 win over the Colonels. Jarrett Doege had a great ’20 debut, going 19/25 for 228 and 3 TDs. Alec Sinkfield and Leddie Brown both ran for 123 yards and 2 TD as well.
The biggest question ahead of West Virginia at Oklahoma State betting is that we don’t know much about the Mountaineers because of the quality of their opponent. WVU is a +2500 favorite to win the Big 12, which is the sixth highest (OSU +650) so the Mountaineers are expected to be decent, even after a 5-7 campaign a year ago.
Oklahoma State Started Slow
Oklahoma State ranked 17th in the country in yards/game last season and was 34th in points scored at 33.4 per. That wasn’t the offense on display in the Cowboy’s opener a week ago though as Mike Gundy’s team struggled to a 16-7 win over Tulsa.
Can more offensive woes be expected on Saturday afternoon (3:30 PM ET, ABC)? Starting QB Spencer Sanders is questionable vs. the Mountaineers with a sprained ankle he suffered in the week one win. JuCo transfer Ethan Bullock was the OSU backup, but he was just 8/13 for 41 yards and INT last week. Bullock was also pulled for freshman Shane Illingworth, who led the Cowboys to 13 fourth quarter points to stave off the upset from Tulsa.
One of the biggest reasons that OSU’s QB issues aren’t a major concern for Cowboys backers (although 63% of bettors are on WVU) is because they have a 2,000 yard rusher from a year ago in Chuba Hubbard. The Heisman candidate was relatively bottled up vs. Tulsa though with 27 carries for just 93 yards even though he did have OSU’s only TD. Hubbard ran for 106 yards on 26 carries in the 20-13 Oklahoma State win on the road at West Virginia last season.
Oklahoma State at West Virginia Betting Free Pick
The side is a tough one to call in this one because West Virginia had a glorified scrimmage in their first game while OSU struggled and also has QB issues coming into Saturday afternoon. Oklahoma State has won five straight in this series, and last year’s low scoring affair was an anomaly with at least 50 points being scored in four games prior.
West Virginia seems like they can move the ball, and Gundy isn’t going to rest on last week’s poor offensive showing. Even if Sanders doesn’t play for OSU, the freshman Illingworth looked great in the 4th vs. Tulsa.
Free Pick: Over 50.5
