Gameday Guide: WSU at No. 18 Virginia

In today's newsletter ...

• Out of the frying pan …

• Critical Info

• Gamblin’

• Key matchup: WSU’s run defense vs. J’Mari Taylor

• What I’ll be watching for: WSU’s offensive output

• What you can watch for: Gameday Bingo!

• Other games of interest

  • Game of the day

  • Next opponent

  • Opponent after that

  • Late Night Sicko Special

Out of the frying pan …

For months, Coug fans had the trip to Oxford, Mississippi, circled on their calendars as the most interesting and toughest matchup of the season for WSU. The opponent was always anticipated to be very good, and traveling to the heart of SEC country was inevitably going to be a really difficult task.

For my money, this trip to Virginia is probably tougher.

Mississippi might be a better team than Virginia — the humans and the predictive models seem to agree on that front — but there are a host of factors that make the Cavaliers a more dangerous opponent for WSU on this particular week.

There’s little doubt in my mind that the players had that trip to Mississippi squarely in their sights much the same way as their fans. Players at WSU — typically overlooked by programs with more prestige — have been loading up for opponents like Mississippi for decades. Throw in the mid-season flops against North Texas and Washington, and the Cougs had a ton to prove last weekend. And it showed in what was their best game of the season. Their passion and grit was palpable; it was the sort of performance that makes you proud to be a fan, even in a close loss.

Now, they’ve got to get themselves up to do it again in another difficult environment. That’s really hard to do in back-to-back weeks, independent of the fact that the Cougs are making an even longer trip across the country to play. Throw in the fact that WSU isn’t going to sneak up on anyone in Charlottesville after what they did last week, and the Cougars certainly have their work cut out for them to turn in another stellar performance.

Critical Info

• Game time: 3:30 p.m. PT

• Location: Scott Stadium — Charlottesville, Virginia

• Weather forecast at kickoff: 75 degrees and sunny, slight breeze

• How to watch: The CW

• How to listen: WSUCougars.com

• Live stats: StatBroadcast 

Gamblin’

Consensus via VegasInsider.com.

Trends: WSU is 3-3 ATS and has gone over the number 3 times. Virginia is 5-1 ATS and has gone over the number five times.

Predictive model probabilities: 16.7% to win, 51.7% to beat the spread (at +17.5)

Key matchup: WSU’s run defense vs. J’Mari Taylor

There aren’t many teams in the country who run the ball better — or more often — than Virginia. The Cavaliers are top 25 in rushes and rushing yards per game, and the guy leading the way is Taylor. The North Carolina Central up-transfer from FCS has more than twice as many yards (465) on almost twice as many rushes (91) as anyone else on the roster, winning the job out of camp after gaining more than 1,100 yards last season.

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