Sportsbooks Label WVU Football the Underdog for Road Game at Iowa State

A double-digit loss at home has WVU football opening the new week as an underdog as they take it to the road.

West Virginia sits as a -2.5-point underdog to Iowa State, according to most major sportsbooks.

In desperate need of a conference win, the Mountaineers head into their Week 5 matchup at 3-1 (0-1, Big 12). WVU is coming off a second half collapse to Oklahoma State that resulted in a 41-24 loss to the Cowboys.

Rich Rodriguez took the blame for a defensive performance that gave up 609 yards of offense to Oklahoma State on Saturday night.

Rich Rodriguez Admits Flaws in Plan Against OSU: ‘I Got to Have a Better Plan’

He said he “failed” to have an adequate plan to stop OSU.

“I failed to have us like, okay, what’s plan A, what’s plan B, and plan C? Normally we have that pretty solidly locked down, but evidently today that wasn’t the case,” Rodriguez said in his postgame press conference.

That was not just his message to the media, as he claimed to tell the team that as well.

“I said I got to have a better plan as a head coach. I got to make sure we have a better plan. And I don’t want this game— one game’s not going to define us. We got a lot to learn and we got a lot of guys playing for the first time. Typically we take 24 hours to move on to the next one. I don’t want to take that long. Go about 12 hours and then start getting ready for the next one,” Rodriguez said.

WVU allowed 389 passing yards and 220 rushing yards and did not tally a single sack. Sophomore running back Caleb Hawkins had 180 yards and a touchdown on the ground and junior wide receiver Wyatt Young had 192 yards receiving with a touchdown as well.

West Virginia and Iowa State will kickoff from Ames, Iowa at noon ET on Saturday, Oct. 3. The game is scheduled to broadcast nationally on TNT.

Find more coverage of the WVU football program at WV Sports Now.