Why Danny Kannell Thinks WVU Will Fall Short of Their 2025 Win Total

After two days of fall camp, we're already beginning to see why expectations for this year's West Virginia team are set extremely low. Rich Rodriguez is already upset with the level of toughness and effort that some are giving, sparking him to go browse the transfer portal once again.

That said, it's only two practices, and no one expected a perfectly smooth transition in the first week or so of camp, let alone the first two days. There's still plenty of time for WVU to settle in, buy in, and get better before the kick things off against Robert Morris on August 30th.

College Football analyst Danny Kannell recently picked a side in West Virginia's win total for 2025 during a recent episode of the Cover 3 podcast, joining the majority.

The odds discussed were found on FanDuel Sportsbook, where the Mountaineers' win total is set at 5.5.

“I want this to work, and I know it’s been a storyline of guys returning to a place where they had a lot of success. It’s a totally different landscape in college football now. It’s not the same conference; they’re in the Big 12. I think that’s been a big struggle for West Virginia — both travel and resources, kind of catching up to everybody there. I use that Ourlads website to see who’s new, and they have it color-coded, like the transfers are in orange, and there is way too much orange for me to be like, yeah, feeling great about it. Now, Rich Rod did point out, they didn’t all leave necessarily. He was kind of saying this could be a good thing, and I do agree with him. Like, the roster I don’t think was one of those cupboards if full. I think it was more towards the cupboard is bare. But that process, I think, takes a little bit longer to unfold, so I would expect year two for them to make a big jump. I’m on the under.

"Again, it’s a wide-open conference. I wouldn’t be shocked if they were able to kind of turn it around somewhat, but for me, I think it’s an under. Typically, if you’re a team contending, you want your toughest opponents at home. This is one where you almost wish you had that Morgantown advantage against some of the teams that felt more winnable. So, the fact that you do get Utah at home, Pitt at home, Texas Tech at home, TCU at home — I don’t know if that’s necessarily the season that you would want them at home because I think those teams are just at a different level right now.”

I may disagree on which side of the 5.5 the Mountaineers will end up this fall, but Kannell does make a great point here with the schedule. It's already hard enough to win on the road in this league, so in year one of a new operation, you probably wouldn't mind playing your toughest games away from Mountaineer Field. But this is the Big 12 we're talking about here. This league is liable to be flipped completely upside down, as it did a year ago. WVU may have a tough home slate on paper, but it may end up not being that bad.

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