The West Virginia Mountaineers and Texas Longhorns clash in a meeting between two struggling Big 12 teams on Saturday. The Longhorns have lost five games in a row coming into this contest, while the Mountaineers have lost two straight.
Will Steve Sarkisian’s team find a way to keep itself in bowl contention with a win in Morgantown? You won’t want to skip our Texas vs. West Virginia picks and predictions for Saturday, November 20, so check it out below.
Texas vs West Virginia odds
Odds via the Covers Line, an average comprised of odds from multiple sportsbooks.
The total in this game opened at 57 and has since gone down to 56.5 on some books, despite most people seemingly betting on the Over. As for the spread, Texas was a 2.5-point favorite when this thing opened, but West Virginia is now favored by anywhere from one to three points. The huge line move came when Bijan Robinson was announced as out.
Use the live odds widget above to track any future line movements right up until kickoff and be sure to check out the full college football odds before placing your bets.
Texas vs West Virginia predictions
Predictions made on 11/18/2021 at 1:35 a.m. ET.
Click on each prediction to jump to the full analysis.
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Texas vs West Virginia game info
• Location: Milan Puskar Stadium, Morgantown, WV
• Date: Saturday, November 20, 2021
• Time: 12:00 p.m. ET
• TV: ESPN 2
Texas vs West Virginia betting preview
Weather
Be sure to monitor the gametime conditions with our NCAA football weather info.
Key injuries
Texas: Roschon Johnson RB (Questionable), Bijan Robinson RB (Out), Josh Thompson DB (Out), Demarvion Overshown DB (Questionable), Jacoby Jones DL (Out), Jordan Whittington RB (Questionable), Denzel Okafor OL (Out), Troy Omeire WR (Out), Ishmael Ibraheem DB (Out), Brayden Liebrock TE (Out), Jaden Alexis WR (Out)
West Virginia: Sean Ryan WR (Questionable), Lance Dixon LB (Questionable), Isaiah Esdale WR (Questionable), Nicktroy Fortune CB (Out), Mike O’Laughlin TE (Out)
Find our latest NCAA football injury reports.
Betting trend to know
Texas is 4-1 against the spread in its last five games when coming off a game in which the team scored 40 or more points. Find more NCAA betting trends for Texas vs. West Virginia.
Texas vs West Virginia picks and predictions
Our predictions are compiled from the analysis of the spread and total and are indications of where we are leaning for this game.
Our best bet is the play that we like the most for this game, which we would actually put some of our bankroll behind.
Spread analysis
Believe it or not, the road team has covered in each of the last five meetings between Texas and West Virginia, and the road team has actually won outright in four of those contests. This week, the Longhorns will have to find a way to win without star running back Bijan Robinson, but it’s not like Texas doesn’t have any talent left in the backfield. Sarkisian has a number of guys he can throw back there and expect decent play from, so this running game won’t completely fall by the wayside without Robinson.
Casey Thompson will, however, have much more responsibility for this Texas team moving forward. Fortunately for Longhorns fans — and bettors — Thompson is more than capable of delivering. This season, the dual-threat signal-caller has thrown for 1,914 yards with 23 touchdowns and only seven picks. He’s also rushed for 148 yards and four touchdowns. His playmaking ability is going to be a huge problem for a Mountaineers defense that has allowed at least 31 points in three of the past five games.
Defensively, Texas has a ton of question marks after giving up 57 points in a loss to the Kansas Jayhawks. It is, however, somewhat simple preparing for this West Virginia offense. The Mountaineers rely heavily on running back Leddie Brown, so the Longhorns can really make things rough on their opponents if they are keying in on the run. West Virginia quarterback Jarret Doege has had a few big games throughout his career, but he’s not exactly an outstanding pocket passer or anything.
Overall, the Longhorns are in a bad way at the moment, but this matchup suits them rather well. This is a good chance for them to end their slide.
Prediction: Texas +3 (-110)
Over/Under analysis
Despite the fact that a large majority of bettors are flocking to the Over in this game, the number has actually gone down since this total first became available. That likely means that there is a lot of sharp money coming in on the Under, and you’ll definitely want to side with that action in a game like this.
Texas might be coming off a disastrous defensive outing last week, but these two teams combined to score only 30 points when they played last year. Each of West Virginia’s last two games also would have gone Under the total in this game, and the Mountaineers just don’t have the type of offense required to help Over bettors win in this one.
It’s also worth noting that both of these teams will be working hard to get into the backfield on defense. Whether it’s Texas trying to slow down Brown and the West Virginia running game or the Mountaineers trying to put pressure on Thompson, any tackles in that area of the field will help the clock run.
Prediction: Under 57 (-110)
Best bet
The Under is a bit riskier than rolling with Texas in this game, as the Longhorns are just so explosive offensively and did just struggle to contain the Jayhawks, who have been the laughingstock of the Big 12 in recent years. Texas is, however, the much better offensive team — even without Robinson — and should be able to get a few more of the bigger stops in this one. That makes them the better play between these two programs.
The Mountaineers are also 2-7 straight-up and 3-5-1 against the spread when playing in games with a total between 56.5 and 63 under head coach Neal Brown. On top of that, West Virginia is 2-10 straight-up and 4-7-1 against the spread when facing teams that average at least 6.25 yards per play in that span.
Pick: Texas +3 (-110)
Did you know that if you parlayed our Texas vs. West Virginia picks, you could win $26.45 on a $10 bet?
Use our college football parlay calculator to create your own parlays and see their potential payouts.
