Maryland hosts West Virginia on September 4th with kickoff scheduled for 3:30 pm EST. The Terps are currently a -3.5 point home underdog (as of 8/22) with a posted total of 55 at betonline sportsbook.
West Virginia was 6-4 last season in a year the culminated with a 24-21 win over Army in the Liberty Bowl.
Essentially, it was a season which saw the Mountaineers take care of mediocre opponents but come up short when they stepped up in class against the likes of Oklahoma State, Texas and Iowa State. In fact, Iowa State blew their doors off, 42-6.
Maryland Played Just 5 Games in 2020
Maryland managed to only get 5 games in last season. Their results were similar to the Mountaineers. They were beaten by the better teams they faced (blown out 43-3 by Northwestern) and were able to beat Minnesota and Penn State.
The Terps had 3 games cancelled last season and were never really to get any kind of momentum going, as was the case with so many teams in 2020 due to covid.
These two teams have not played since 2015. But a quick look at the series starting in 2015 and going back 10 years sees West Virginia going 9-1 with most of those games not close.
Our model only has 5 games to work with for Maryland, but predicts a 25-17 Mountaineer win. Based on the most recent series history and the fact that West Virginia played twice as many games in 2020 and returns just about everyone, we have to agree with our model.