Connecticut Huskies at No. 16 West Virginia Mountaineers (-19.5), Total 55.5 |
Connecticut is coming in off a 38-31 loss to Western Michigan last week despite finishing with 451 yards of offense, but it surrendered 479 passing yards and 490 overall.
“I think I’m a little bit more confident in our offense,” commented walk-on quarterback Johnny McEntee. “We played well today and we were performing right down until the last minute.”
The Huskies are being led by coach Paul Pasqualoni, who had been an extremely successful coach at Syracuse, leading the program to 107 wins and four Big East titles. He is the all-time winningest coach in the conference.
Saturday’s game is the eighth meeting all-time for the Huskies and Mountaineers, with West Virginia holding a 6-1 advantage. Connecticut picked up a 16-13 win as 4.5-point home underdogs in last year’s meeting.
The Huskies are 3-4 in Big East openers with a 27-24 loss at Rutgers to open last year’s conference schedule. Connecticut finished the non-conference portion of its schedule with a 2-3 record. The results could have been much better, as the Huskies led in the fourth quarter in two of their losses.
sportsbook bettors will find that the Huskies are 10-4 ATS versus conference foes and the ‘over’ is 8-6 in those contests.
West Virginia has tallied a 64-18 record over its last 82 games and bounced back from its first loss of the season with a 55-10 win over the Bowling Green Falcons as 17.5-point home favorites last week.
The Mountaineers have won the statistical battle in all five games this season, including a 167-yard edge in their 47-21 loss to the LSU Tigers.
Quarterback Geno Smith has thrown a touchdown pass in eight straight games, while he ranks eighth on the school’s all-time list with 5,011 yards of total offense. The Mountaineers are 71-2 in their last 73 games when scoring 30 or more points.
West Virginia is 88-49-1 all-time in Big East Conference play, including a 47-21-1 mark when playing at home. The Mountaineers have gone 31-11 in their last 42 tilts versus conference foes.
The Mountaineers are 2-5 ATS as a favorite of 10.5 to 21 points the last two-plus years, while the ‘under’ is 5-2 in those contests.
