Can West Virginia football overcome the odds to put No. 25 Virginia on upset alert?

In Week 3, one of the key games in the 7:30 PM timeslot will feature a clash between West Virginia and No. 25 Virginia at a neutral-site in Charlotte. Branded as the Duke's Mayo Classic (yes, hosted by the same folks that host the bowl), it will be a premier early-season ACC-Big 12 showdown, and will be the toughest test yet for Rich Rodriguez in his second season since returning to the Mountaineers.

The Mountaineers enter as underdogs in the match-up, with Vegas oddsmakers projecting the Cavaliers as 10.5-point favorites as the game rapidly approaches. But man people increasingly believe that West Virginia could go into Charlotte and shock the Cavaliers this Saturday. So how exactly does that happen?

West Virginia football seeks upset win in Week 3 at Duke's Mayo Classic: What's the path to pulling it off?

On Tuesday's "Big Game Breakdown" episode of the Cover 3 Podcast from CBS Sports, the show's crewspotlighted the Virginia/West Virginia match-upas their upset alert of the week.

I do [see a path]" said analyst Bud Elliott. "The path is this: I think West Virginia, guys, might be on to the idea that Virginia is going to run Beau [Pribula]. Obviously West Virginia faces a mobile quarterback in practice all the time, a run-first quarterback in Hawkins."

"It's a different scheme the Mountaineers are going to bring in defensively, and we'll have to see if they can create some penetration and confusion with that. My thought here is that West Virginia is going to sell out to try and get Virginia into negative leverage situations, and we don't know how good or bad Virginia will be in those situations, because we have not seen them in those situations this year."

But Elliott also isn't expecting West Virginia to score a ton, and identified 27 as a points target that should secure the win for the Cavaliers. And if they can't keep Virginia's offense off schedule, he predicts that Virginia can "cruise" to victory. And to create such scenarios, the other analysts on the show agreed that West Virginia's front seven has to make an impact against Virginia's veteran offensive line.

"Can you stay in your gap?" asked analyst Tom Fornelli. "Can you get your fits? Can you maintain your integrity in those areas? Because Virginia is going to try and get you out of them, and if they can't fool you, they can just push you out of them.

"You have to find a way to stay in there to limit their rushing attack. Because if you take away Virginia's run game and force Beau Pribula to be a drop back passer, that's not where Virginia wants to be."

This feels like a fairly accurate analysis of the match-up. The Mountaineershave looked better on offensethis season, but not necessarily against a team at the talent level of Virginia. And the Cavaliers have a veteran defense, which is quite good at limited the type of explosive plays Rodriguez's offense thrives on.

So West Virginia will need to take advantage of offensive opportunities and Rodriguez will need to scheme some stuff up: which is something most West Virginia fans feel like is a fairly achievable goal. The tougher aspect will be stopping a Virginia offensive line and rushing attack that's also loaded with disciplined veterans and has already stood out against a Power 4 opponent.

There are some positives and negatives in that regard for West Virginia. The positives include that their run defense has looked much better than their pass defense early, and Beau Pribula's a better runner than passer. And West Virginia's linebackerswere four of the five highest-graded defensive playerslast week.

But West Virginia allowed an FCS opponent in UT-Martin to average 12.6 yards per run and 9.8 yards per passon the first play of each possessionlast week, which doesn't bode super well for West Virginia if a big key to victory is keeping their opponent behind schedule offensively. But if Zac Alley's defense makes the necessary adjustments, the Mountaineers are in prime position to pull of an upset this week.

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