The West Virginia Mountaineers are coming out of their first bye week with one of their more winnable games remaining on the schedule in front of them – although Vegas oddsmakers might not agree that it's a game WVU football can win.
Odds have opened for the WVU-UCF showdown this Saturday in Orlando, and once again the Mountaineers find themselves a pretty good sized underdog. The Vegas oddsmakers currently have theUCF Knights opening as a 7.5-point favorite over the Mountaineers, with the over/under for the points total at 51.5
Both teams will enter the weekend winless in Big 12 play and on a three-game losing streak, as the Mountaineers dropped conference clashes with Kansas, Utah, and BYU before their bye week – the Knights meanwhile are coming off a 20-11 loss to Cincinnati in Week 7, which was preceded by losses to Kansas and Kansas State in prior weeks.
The line might be a little too high in favor of the Knights, given that Rodriguez does have a good history coming out of bye weeks – his career record in such games as a head coach is 21-7. However, WVU and UCF have played just one common opponent this season in Kansas – the Knights lost to the Jayhawks by just one touchdown on their home turf, while the Mountaineers were handed a brutal loss in a 41-10 beatdown from the Jayhawks in Lawrence.
It will be interesting to see how the line changes between two teams that seem relatively evenly matched over the week, and a lot of that may depend on the news that comes from each program over the next couple days. But for now, it seems that the teams' result against a shared opponent is playing a big role in the odds, and based upon the game each team played against Kansas, it makes sense to see WVU as the underdog.