College GameDay split on West Virginia’s trip to Iowa State, and the crew’s Week 5 pick’em segment wasted no time getting into the matchup.
One panelist backed the Cyclones after looking at the numbers, saying, “As much as I want to go with the Mountaineers, I looked up their stats, and defensively, they are last in the conference in scoring defense and total defense...Go Cyclones.”
Another went the other direction and made it personal: “Hey, this is an emotional pick for me. You know, it's time for the Mountaineers to get their s*** together for all the people in West Vigrinia that have passion for this team. Go Mountaineers!”
The pro-West Virginia sentiment kept rolling from there. One panelist added, “Hell yeah!
I like that! You picked them for the first time last week; we all lost.
And they got absolutely smacked The good thing about West Virginia, these people know...they are going to go in there and beat the hell out of the Cyclones. The West Virginia Mountaineers to come into the state of Iowa and get a huge dub.”
Another still landed on Iowa State, saying, “This is going to be a bad start for me, but I'm taking Iowa State. I said I wanted to get 100% accuracy.
You can boo me. I'll make you happy at the end.
I got Iowa State. My brother played football at Iowa State.
Give me a little break.”
The final pick on the segment swung back to West Virginia: “I think we saw Iowa State's defense struggle against a very similar offense last week in Utah. Now, here comes Michael Hawkins and Cam Cook, rushing for 295, I think West Virginia on the road they come into Ames and get that dub.”
That came after a rough Week 4 for the Mountaineers in the eyes of the GameDay crew. Every panelist picked West Virginia over Oklahoma State last week, and the result went the other way. The show has a running joke about being a jinx when everyone lands on the same side, and plenty of Mountaineer fans on X jumped on that right away, saying West Virginia was “cooked” and predicting Oklahoma State would win because of the picks.
The bottom line from last week was simple: West Virginia didn’t get the job done defensively. If it had, the Mountaineers would be 4-0 and 1-0 in conference play instead of taking their first loss of the season. Now they’re trying to answer back in Ames, where the game is underway on TNT.
In Other News...
WVU Faces A Familiar Road Test With Its Slide Suddenly In Focus
West Virginia heads to Jack Trice Stadium for a noon kickoff against Iowa State, a matchup that lands squarely in the middle of the Big 12 grind and on a fairly big TV stage with TNT, truTV and HBO Max carrying the game. Both teams enter at 6-6, and the Cyclones are a 3.5-point favorite, which gives the Mountaineers a clear sense of the challenge waiting in Ames.
For West Virginia, this is the kind of road test that can sharpen perspective quickly, especially with the season now hanging on the details of how well the team handles one more familiar conference environment. Iowa State has the edge on paper, but the Mountaineers have spent enough time in this league to know what a noon trip to Jack Trice can turn into, and the numbers around the game only add to the sense that this one will come down to execution. [Read more 🡒]
WVU Faces A Road Test That Could Expose One Costly Weakness
West Virginia heads into a true road game at Jack Trice Stadium with ESPNs SP+ projection model once again offering a read on how the matchup with Iowa State might play out. The model has not exactly been a reliable guide for the Mountaineers lately, but it does underline what makes this trip so tricky: a hostile environment, an opponent that can lean on its own strengths, and a game that could come down to whether WVU handles the small stuff well enough away from home.
The bigger concern is the part of the game that can quietly swing a tight Big 12 contest. Both teams bring running-game questions into the week, and the special teams edge could matter more than usual in a road setting where field position and momentum are harder to control. For West Virginia, the challenge is not just surviving the setting, but avoiding the kind of hidden breakdown that turns a competitive night into a costly one. [Read more 🡒]
Phil Steele Still Believes West Virginia Can Rebound Against Iowa State
Phil Steele did not like what he saw from West Virginia on defense against Oklahoma State, but he is not ready to write off the Mountaineers just yet. Looking ahead to Iowa State, he still sees West Virginia as the better team and thinks the matchup gives them a chance to steady themselves after a shaky outing.
Steeles view is notable because the Mountaineers enter the weekend as underdogs, yet he still leans toward them to win or at least cover the spread. He also weighed in on several other college football games on the schedule, but for West Virginia, the bigger point is whether last weeks issues were a one-game lapse or something more concerning heading into another tough Big 12 test. [Read more 🡒]