Phil Steele Breaks Down What He Expects Between WVU-Colorado, Makes Prediction

Can the Mountaineers win a second straight game?

This weekend's Big 12 battle in Morgantown will feature a pair of 3-6 (1-5) teams, but the two are trending in opposite directions. West Virginia is coming off a close loss to TCU and a win over No. 22 Houston, while Colorado has lost by 46 and 35 in each of its last two contests.

College football expert Phil Steele hinted last week that he'd probably pick West Virginia in this matchup. He joined us this morning on In the Gun to reveal his official prediction.

Phil's analysis

“I think the arrows are pointing in two different directions here. When you look at Colorado, they had some hope, especially after the Iowa State win. But now two straight blowout losses, and really, Deion (Sanders) is having a tough time getting a quarterback established. Last week, Salter started again, and another interception or two, they go to Ryan Staub, Staub tosses one, and then it’s Julian Lewis, and it was pretty much his first real action of the season. To take a first road start at a place like West Virginia, where the crowd’s pretty rowdy, I like that (for WVU). It’s always tough for a quarterback in his first road start. Maybe if he’s struggling, they go back to Salter, maybe they go to Staub. I don’t like teams playing quarterback roulette like that, and they’ve been pretty much doing that all year.

"Meanwhile, the thing I like about this matchup the best is West Virginia; Rich Rod’s teams do the best when they can run the football, like they did last week. We see the run game emerging now. I like the way Scotty Fox has experience, has gone on the road, and come out with the win. The team is gaining confidence in him weekly. But when you look at Colorado’s run defense, it is struggling. They’re giving up 5.3 yards per carry, and that just plays right into the hands of West Virginia. I think West Virginia does what they want to do, which is run the football and run it successfully. Colorado, with the musical quarterbacks and the fact that they’re in a hostile environment, I definitely like West Virginia in this game.”

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