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It’s the 17th-ranked Kansas St. Wildcats (5-1, 2-1 Big in 12) visiting the West Virginia Mountaineers (3-3, 2-1) Saturday evening.
Kickoff at Milan Puskar Stadium in Morgantown is 7:30 PM (ET).
West Virginia is coming off a 28-16 home loss to the now-No. 9 Iowa St. Cyclones last Saturday. It was a statistically even game, but the Mountaineers could muster just six second-half points.
Meanwhile, the Wildcats went to Boulder and knocked off the Colorado Buffaloes, 31-28, using a 50-yard Avery Johnson-to-Jayce Brown touchdown pass with just over two minutes remaining,
Visiting Kansas St. is a field-goal favorite (total at 54½), according to college football odds.
The 14th meeting between the teams finds the Wildcats leading the series, 7-6 (won last two games by 17 points each).
‘Cats Aren’t Folding
The Kansas St Wildcats are currently 2-0 in one-score games, which isn’t necessarily a worthwhile state until you consider they were 1-4 in such scenarios last season.
The Wildcats of coach Chris Kleiman prevailed in a back-and-forth game against the Buffs.
"Incredible game, a really good football game, like I think all of us knew it was going to be," Klieman said. "A lot of adversity and a lot of resilience."
Quarterback Johnson (1,103 passing yards, 11 touchdowns, five interceptions) briefly left the game (injured hip), the sophomore returning and overcoming a final-quarter turnover.
Running back DJ Giddens and wideout Jayce Brown have combined to exceed 1,100 yards
The Mediocre Mountaineers
Now, after a spotty 3-3 start, coach Neal Brown has seen the West Virginia fanbase start to turn.
Brown was asked, point blank, why people should still come to the games
"I get that they (fans) want to win," he said "What I would say is, ‘did they have a good time?’ Did they enjoy it? It was a pretty good atmosphere. I'm assuming they had a pretty good time tailgating. I would come back. We need 'em to provide a home-field advantage. We need 'em.”
In Brown’s defense, WVU’s losses came against three undefeated (into the week) ranked teams in Penn St., Pitt and Iowa St.
Quarterback Garrett Greene (1,267 passing yards, eight touchdowns, six interceptions, 382 rushing yards, three touchdowns) threw two picks against the Cyclones last week. Backfield mates CJ Donaldsom and Jahiem White each have five ground touchdowns.
Grab the Three
The second choice to win the Big 12 are the 3-1 (+300) Wildcats, while the Mountaineers are at 16-1 (+1600), as per college football conference odds.
There’s another ranked team coming to Morgantown, which has been the norm this season. S was mentioned, the Wildcats of Kansas St. have excelled in close games to this point, meaning they’ve been susceptible, too.
WVU will need to limit turnovers, but the stats suggest quarterback Garrett Greene is going to have time to throw.
Greene’s opposite number, Avery Johnson, has also had an inconsistent season throwing the ball, so if you can deduce the team which protects the pigskin, advance to the next round.
This seems to be a close game in the making, so we’re taking the home side plus the points.
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