West Virginia hosts UCF on Saturday for their Senior Day and True Blue Game.
UCF is 4-6 (2-5 in conference play), coming off a bye. The Mountaineers are 5-5 (4-3 in conference play), after being defeated by Baylor at home last week.
The game kicks off at 3:3 p.m. ET and will be televised on ESPNU.
Our staff gives their predictions:
Ryan Roddy: The season feels in the wayside for West Virginia, but with a win, they can still become bowl-eligible. Last game, Garrett Greene returned for the Mountainers and got it done with his legs, but struggled throwing it at times. While he still managed to throw two short touchdowns, he completed less than half of his pass attempts and was picked off once. After an encouraging showing against Cincinnati, WVU’s defense struggled against the Bears, allowing over 500 total yards of offense and seven touchdowns. UCF hasn’t had much success this season either; they’ve won just one of their last seven games. Running back RJ Harvey has been phenomenal for the Knights. He’s got 1,328 rushing yards this season, averaging 6.8 yards per carry with 19 touchdowns. Last season, the Mountaineers had little trouble defeating UCF in Orlando. Now, the Knights will step into Morgantown in late November and try to keep their bowl hopes alive. I see this as a bounceback game for West Virginia. I predict their offense gets going early and doesn’t stop. I expect to see a solid rushing attack throughout from the Mountaineers.
WVU 45, UCF 28
Tanner Mountz: The season feels completely in the balance this week for WVU. If they want to make a bowl game and salvage what has a been a very disappointing season at least a little bit, it feels like they have to get the win this week against UCF. It will come down to the defense’s ability to stop UCF’s run game. These are two of the conference’s top rushing attacks and the team that has to bail from the run game first will be in a lot of trouble. It will be interesting to see if Neal Brown and company have addressed the struggles at home this season and can come out and start strong in Milan Puskar. One last chance to ring John Denver through the Morgantown mountains in 2024, and I think WVU does just that in a close one.
WVU 27, UCF 24
Joe Antenucci:
The Mountaineers have two remaining chances to win one game to earn bowl eligibility. This is the one to win. On the road next week against Texas Tech does not scream win, so WVU needs to get one last “Country Roads” in for the Mountaineer faithful. Similarly to all games this season, the Mountaineers need to establish the run and it needs to happen early. Favoring WVU, UCF lives off the run only throwing the ball 39% of the time. West Virginia’s secondary has not been great, but as long as they can limit the big mistakes, I believe the defensive unit will have a much better day in the trenches. With all of that being said, WVU has lost their last three at home, and have not put a promising product out their on the field. A decrease in attendance is likely, as students are going on “Fall Recess”. UCF needs to win these last two to get to .500 and I expect a sense of urgency from their squad.
UCF 38, WVU 34
Lilly Reisenweber: There are a lot of factors determining the outcome of this Saturday’s game. WVU (5-5) has a slightly better record than UCF (4-6). WVU has yet to lose to the Knights and hopefully this weekend won’t be the first. The weather is looking a little chilly which the Knights aren’t used to. I believe WVU will win their last home game of the season as they are still looking to become bowl eligible.
WVU 35, UCF 31
