Phil Steele Drops His WVU-Texas Tech Prediction — And the Recipe for an Upset

Are the Mountaineers capable of stunning the Red Raiders on the road?

West Virginia University running back Cam Cook | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

It'll be a big-time showdown in West Texas this weekend, and one that could feature a combined 1,000 yards and 100 points. And no, that's not a stretch.

This could be an old-fashioned Big 12 shootout with Texas Tech getting an extra boost offensively with Thomas Castellanos at quarterback and the Mountaineers bringing in one of the most explosive offenses in all of college football.

Is there a chance for WVU to pull off the upset? Like, any at all? On this morning's episode of In the Gun, we asked college football expert Phil Steele for his opinion.

Phil's prediction

“I think we’re going to have a really good game here. I definitely like West Virginia plus the points. I’m not going to call for the upset, but I think the upset is a possibility — there’s no doubt about it. When you look at Texas Tech this year, remember last year’s Texas Tech team just demolished teams. Their defense was outstanding, the offense put the points up, and every game was a blowout — that’s not happening this year. Looking at Texas Tech’s entire season this year, to me, the most impressive half they had was the first half against Arizona State. That looked like Texas Tech of last year. It was 43-10; they had 404 yards of offense. But since then, and before then, they were far from dominant. The Colorado game, they actually got outgained. The Houston game, they won by two. You go back to even last week’s Arizona game, and Arizona missed an open 4th-and-2 pass late in the game when they were down by four, and that could have been even closer. They have not been blowing teams out. That first half against Arizona State was great, but they’ve yet to do that for an entire game. I think Texas Tech is the better team; I do like the move to (Thomas) Castellanos. I love their run game with (Cameron) Dickey, (J’Koby) Williams, and (Quinten) Joyner. If I’m a West Virginia fan, that’s my main concern — stop the damn run! Because if Texas Tech is gaining five, six yards on every carry, they are going to put the ball in the end zone. You need to stop the run, force Castellanos to beat you, and that’s the recipe for the upset. I like West Virginia plus the points, though, in this game.”

Watch the Full Episode here

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