West Virginia vs. Baylor Spread Pick
The West Virginia Mountaineers are coming off their bye following their first loss of the season and will host the Baylor Bears at 7:00 p.m. ET on Thursday night. Is it worth laying 14 points on the home team to rebound?
Game Snapshot
113 Baylor Bears at 114 West Virginia Mountaineers
7:00 p.m. ET, Thursday, October 25
Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, West Virginia
Public Betting Trends
According to oddsmakers from online sports book BetNow.eu, the Mountaineers are 14-point favorites to beat the Bears. The total, meanwhile, sits at 67 points. As of this writing, 64% of the public betting tickets wagered on this matchup are on the Mountaineers.
Baylor Bears
Baylor redshirt senior WR Jalen Hurd caught five passes for 72 yards in Saturday’s 23-17 loss against Texas. Hurd had two big drops in the game, including a would-be touchdown in the third quarter. Fortunately, he redeemed himself minutes later with a two-yard touchdown run out of the I-formation (Hurd had 13 rushing yards on six attempts). Hurd’s talent pops in every game, but he remains extremely raw as a receiver. For somebody this inexperienced, his numbers are kind of incredible, with a 47-622-3 receiving line through seven games (along with 112 yards and three TD on the ground). Baylor is on bye next week, which is really good news for a team coming off such a huge near-miss.
West Virginia Mountaineers
West Virginia Senior QB Will Grier has been named a finalist for the Johnny Unitas Award. Grier is coming off the worst game of his time at West Virginia; throwing for just 100 yards with an interception in a loss to Iowa State. Outside of that contest, the senior signal-caller has been outstanding. The Unitas Award goes to the top senior or fourth-year junior quarterback in the country in the awards’ eyes on-and-off the field. Other nominees include Washington’s Jake Browning, Penn State’s Trace McSorley and Missouri’s Drew Lock. The full list of nominees can be found in the link below.
Betting Trends
Baylor
The Bears are 5-1 against the spread in their last six games overall.
West Virginia
The Mountaineers are 4-11-1 against the spread in their last 16 games coming off a loss.
Prediction
Baylor doesn’t have the same defense that Kansas State and certainly Iowa State has, but the bottom line is that Will Grier is coming off back-to-back poor performances. In fact, that 11-of-15, 100-yard performance against the Cyclones likely caused Grier to fall out of Heisman contention. Meanwhile, Baylor covered the spread as a 14-point road dog two weeks ago in Texas and looks to be finding itself under Matt Rhule. I like the Bears to keep this one close.
College Football Prediction: Baylor Bears +14