WVU Football Slight Favorite Over Kansas Despite Struggles

In a somewhat surprising turn of events, WVU opens the new week as a slight favorite in Week 4. According to at least one major sportsbook, West Virginia is a 2.5-point favorite going into their upcoming game against Kansas.

Despite coming off a 38-34 loss to Pitt, compounded by blowing a 10-point lead late in the fourth quarter, the Mountaineers are expected to open conference play 1-0 against Big 12 opponents. And if that does happen, it would allow WVU to keep their overall goals alive based on the new rules of the College Football Playoff.

A large part of why West Virginia is favored over Kansas likely stems from the Jayhawks’ struggles themselves. Kansas has lost back-to-back games to Illinois and UNLV.

Not that it will alleviate any of the pain for WVU fans, head coach Neal Brown didn’t make any excuses after his team blew a 10-point lead to the Panthers.

West Virginia led 34-24 towards the end of the fourth quarter, but then ended up walking off the field a loser nonetheless. “You should never lose a game when you’re up 10 late,” said Brown during his postgame press conference.

And since Pitt’s comeback win was largely due to the struggles of WVU’s secondary, Brown added a “let’s just say what it is, we haven’t defended the pass really good” as well. Pitt quarterback Eli Holstein completed 21-of-30 passes for 301 yards and threw three touchdowns in the game.

Quarterback Garrett Greene echoed what Brown said, too. “We were up with 5 minutes to go. We shouldn’t lose games like that.”