West Virginia Mountaineers vs BYU Cougars Prediction, Odds and Picks for Friday, 10/03/25

We head to Provo on Friday night for a Big 12 matchup between the West Virginia Mountaineers and the BYU Cougars. Both teams are on a quick turnaround after playing on Saturday, with the added wrinkle that the Mountaineers have to cross the continent. West Virginia is struggling at 2-3 in the first year of Rich Rodriguez’s (second) tenure, and this is pretty much a rebuild in every sense of the word. For BYU, things are going great at 4-0, but they are looking at a really tough Big 12 schedule after this one. I do not love their outlook for long term success this season, but I do think the smartest play on Friday is to take the far better team, especially playing at home on a short week. Give me BYU to cover -19.

One of the reasons for BYU’s success has been freshmen QB Bear Bachmeier. After booting their starting QB over the summer, there wasn’t a lot of hope in Provo. But then Bachmeier turned out to be a star, and he can beat you on the ground or in the air. He is fun, if you haven’t watched him yet. Surrounding him is a Cougar team that is just tough and physical. They are not fun to play. They should also be way better than West Virginia at this point. The Mountaineers lost their starting QB to a foot injury, and it is unclear when or if he will return. The problem, aside from just having a backup QB in there in general, is that this West Virginia offense wants to be a dynamic rushing attack, but that is much harder to do when defenses do not have to respect the threat of a passing attack. That is where the Mountaineers are right now. I expect them to struggle to score all night, and eventually BYU should pull away.

West Virginia vs BYU Prediction: BYU -19 (-110) available at the time of publishing. Playable to -20.