This hasn't been the best start to the year for West Virginia. Losing to Maryland was just awful. Now they have to play host to #17 Virginia Tech. One would assume that means the public expects another West Virginia loss.
You know what they say about assuming though right? That's right, West Virginia is actually the first unranked team favored to pull off an upset this year.
Odds
Oddsmakers think this is going to be a close game with the hosts having the slight advantage. West Virginia is a 2.5 point favorite, and they're given -125 odds to win the game outright. That means oddsmakers are giving them a 55.6% chance to pull off the upset. Meanwhile, Virginia Tech is given +120 odds, or an implied 45.5% chance to lose their first game of the year.
Basically, oddsmakers think that home field advantage is going to be the difference in this game. Whether that turns out to be true or not will be determined Saturday.
Matchup History
Virginia Tech and West Virginia have met 52 times in their history. West Virginia has won 28 of those matchups. However, they have lost their last 3 matchups, 7 of their last 9, and 10 of their last 13.
So, while they do have the better record in the matchups between the two, that just hasn't been the case in the last few decades. So, they'll be looking to break their Virginia Tech curse.
Conclusion
West Virginia has a chance to really change their fortunes this week. Their loss to Maryland was a tough one to swallow, but beating Virginia Tech would help ease that pain.
While that's certainly a difficult hill to climb, it's one that they're surprisingly expect to.