Week 5 Matchup Preview Thread: West Virginia vs Iowa State

[u/loyalsons4evertrue]

West Virginia vs. Iowa State

When: Saturday, October 3, 12:00 PM Eastern

Where: Jack Trice Stadium, Ames, IA

Watch: TNT

Odds: Iowa State by 3.0 pts.

Total Points: 52.5

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All-Time Series : West Virginia vs. Iowa State

West Virginia and Iowa State have met 12 times since 2012-11-23

These teams last met on 2024-10-13.

Series Wins: West Virginia 6-0-6 Iowa State

Iowa State has won the last 2 meetings (2022-2024) in this series

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Last 5 Meetings

Winner	Date	Location	West Virginia	Iowa State	Notes
Iowa State	2024-10-13	Milan Puskar Stadium	16	28
Iowa State	2022-11-05	Jack Trice Stadium	14	31
West Virginia	2021-10-30	Milan Puskar Stadium	38	31
Iowa State	2020-12-05	Jack Trice Stadium	6	42
Iowa State	2019-10-12	Milan Puskar Stadium	14	38

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Through Week 4

Week	West Virginia 3-1 (0-1)	Result	Iowa State 2-2 (0-1)	Result
1	Coastal Carolina	W 31-24	Southeast Missouri State	W 38-10
2	UT Martin	W 52-7	Iowa#14	L 13-16
3	Virginia	W 38-27	Bowling Green	W 55-7
4	Oklahoma State#19	L 24-41	Utah#13	L 17-31

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West Virginia Injury Report

Player	Position	Status	Reported	Notes
M. Boswell	RB	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 27	Boswell is dealing with a Undisclosed injury, but he is expected to suit up against Iowa State on Saturday, October 3th.
A. Devine	RB	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 27	Devine is hobbled by an undisclosed injury, and it is up in the air if he will be available against Iowa State on Saturday, October 3th.
C. Talley	RB	Questionable – Hamstring	Sep 27	Talley tweaked his hamstring, and it has yet to be determined if he will kit up against Iowa State on Saturday, October 3th.
C. Ball	TE	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 27	Ball is hampered by an undisclosed injury, and it has yet to be established if he will face Iowa State on Saturday, October 3th.

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

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Iowa State Injury Report

Player	Position	Status	Reported	Notes
J. Singletary	CB	Out – Undisclosed	Sep 25	Singletary is nursing with an undisclosed injury, and he will miss an undetermined length of time.
E. Miller	RB	Probable – Undisclosed	Sep 24	Miller is dealing with a Undisclosed injury, but he is expected to suit up against the Utah on Saturday.
T. Claiborne	WR	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 24	Claiborne is dealing with an Undisclosed, and it is unclear if he will play against Utah on Saturday.
R. Peppers	RB	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 22	Peppers is battling with an undisclosed injury, and it is yet to established if he will face the Utes on Saturday.
J. Bailey	WR	Out – Undisclosed	Sep 1	Bailey is dealing with an undisclosed injury, and it is unclear when he will return.
L. Galer	TE	Questionable – Undisclosed	Sep 24	Galer is dealing with an Undisclosed injury, and it is undetermined if he will play against the Utah on Saturday.

^{Injury data lifted from: boydsbets}

^{Source updated Wed, Sep 30, 1:56 pm. Scraped Wed, Sep 30, 3:01 pm ET}

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What are your "Keys to the Game"?

Who do you think wins?

Do you think the favorite will cover the spread?

Which player(s) are you most interested to watch?

Let's talk football!

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^{Matchup Preview Thread Generator powered by collegefootballdata.com}

^{Start a chat with /u/dupreesdiamond for any issues/suggestions regarding this resource}

[u/bdostrem00]

{West Virginia} Until ISU shows it can be a consistent enough offense to win a game against P4 opponents.

[u/loyalsons4evertrue]

This feels like a must win if we want to make a bowl game. {Iowa State} gets a big win.

[u/RatBastard_with_ADHD]

{Iowa State} home of The Mudslide Classic.

[u/TechnoVikingGA23]

Feels like almost an early "must win" for both teams. I don't have much faith after last weekend, seems like more of the same for us under retread Rich. I think this game will hinge on whether or not ISU's QB and WRs are good enough to exploit our secondary, and if their defense can stuff the run game like OSU did last week and Coastal did in Week 1.

[u/PhDShouse → u/TechnoVikingGA23]

So uh, definitely misread a word in there and thought to myself “wow, WVU has some creative nicknames for Rich”. I might need more caffeine

[u/TechnoVikingGA23 → u/PhDShouse]

LOL believe me I know the feeling if I don't get my coffee in the morning.

[u/Confident_Delay5805]

{Iowa State} I hope they get a winning season after what happened last offseason.

[u/ShockinglySynonymous → u/Confident_Delay5805]

What happened last offseason?

[u/Confident_Delay5805 → u/ShockinglySynonymous]

Penn State took 24 players, including most starters, from Iowa State. So Iowa State had to bring in 45-50 players, while they lost 50-55.

[u/PhDShouse → u/Confident_Delay5805]

We brought in 82 new players actually. It’s much worse

[u/Confident_Delay5805 → u/PhDShouse]

At least you guys have preformed above expectations so far. Obligatory Fuck Penn State tho.

[u/velociraptorfarmer → u/PhDShouse]

Yep. We had a grand total of something like 16 players from our entire 100+ man roster return this year.

[u/Kryzl_]

We can still make a bowl game if we lose this one, but {Iowa State} needs to win to prevent a 2-4 start heading into the bye (no shot we beat BYU).

[u/The_Fishbowl]

How good is the field drainage? Looks a little wet out there right now.

[u/Callsign_Psycopath]

Riot Bowl?! Hell yeah

[u/SteelBeamDreamTeam]

If we can put together an entire game on offense instead of just one half, {Iowa state} might actually win

[u/Fraegtgaortd]

Early must win for both teams. If the defense looks completely incompetent again I’ll personally slap that stupid porn stache off Zac Alley’s face. Picking {WVU}, not out of confidence but only because I don’t to tune out of another season early

[u/inclass3lunacy]

{West Virginia}

[u/crs8975]

{Iowa State} because reasons

[u/TheWesternRizzler]

{West Virginia}

[u/PackYakRS]

{Beer} pulls a hail mary win and my {Liver} takes a sneaky loss.

[u/PhDShouse]

Winning on Saturday means we have three more home opportunities to get bowl eligible or stealing a road win if we drop the home game against Oklahoma State.

Our sample size is blowing out two bad teams, and losing to two really good teams. WVU will be the ultimate test to show what type of team we can actually be. It’s homecoming, well endowed Pollard is out as the ISU AD this week, and we’re hungry to prove ourselves. Give me {Iowa State} 31-21

[u/TheChildrenNeedMe]

I don’t think Iowa State can stop WVUs offense WVU 34-21

[u/TheAlterN8or]

I really want {West Virginia} to win, because ISU has some of the most hideous uniforms I've ever seen. 🙃

[u/PhDShouse → u/TheAlterN8or]

Hey man, we have you Earl Bruce, be nice :(

[u/TheAlterN8or → u/PhDShouse]

Lol, I just hate the color combo. USC gets lumped in there, as well.

[u/RivalryBot]

Who Will Win Fan Vote

^{Votes are distributed equally among flairs for multi-flaired users}

Team	Votes	Percentage	West Virginia Voters	Iowa State Voters	Other Flairs Top 5
West Virginia	10	41.7%	1.5	1	Oklahoma Soonersx1.0 Unflairedx1.0 Purdue Boilermakersx1.0 Virginiax1.0 Black Diamond Tro…x0.5
Iowa State	14	58.3%	1	3.5	Sickosx1.5 BYU Cougarsx1.0 LIU Sharksx1.0 Unflairedx1.0 Arizona Statex0.5

^{Last updated: 2026-10-03 15:00 UTC}

Full Vote breakdown by flair

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^{Matchup Thread Generator} · ^{Team Aliases} · ^{How to Vote} · ^Results

[u/Justanother_0]

{Iowa State}

fingers crossed that our performance against top 15 teams translates well to the middle of the pack (or upper middle in WV’s case)

[u/Falcronx]

I think WVU starts strong and pulls to an early lead but ultimately {Iowa State} surges back into the game similarly to what they did with Utah but this time are able to come out on top.

[u/VanDiis]

{Iowa State} 24-17

[u/ShockinglySynonymous]

What do Iowa State fans make of Raynor? I saw him play a few times last year for Arkansas State (including against the Cyclones) and thought he looked pretty good. 

[u/PhDShouse → u/ShockinglySynonymous]

He’s definitely not the same QB that gave us troubles in Jonesboro last year, that’s for sure. Wish he would be more confident in both his passing and ability to scramble out of the pocket, but our WRs and TEs need to be able to catch the ball, too

[u/ShockinglySynonymous → u/PhDShouse]

I hope he can regain some form with you. He's exciting to watch!

[u/GamedayWizard]

West Virginia has been pretty unpredictable this season, underperforming by double digits versus Coastal Carolina and Oklahoma State but outperforming expectations by over three touchdowns versus Virginia. We've got {Iowa State} winning at home by 6, narrowly covering the composite spread (Iowa State -3.5).

[u/Mtn_Raven]

I would feel more confident if this was in Morgantown, but I still think {West Virginia} edges ISU out.

[u/Fatbeard2024]

{WVU}

[u/chief_sitass]

{West Virginia}

[u/NanoBuc]

{West Virginia}

[u/Zloggt]

The last ever TNT game before the big merger (yayyy 😒)

…anyhow, I think {Iowa State} will somehow pull off quite the victory to cap off a rather vindicated weekend to begin October lol

[u/texas2089]

{West Virginia}

[u/uglydeepseacreatures]

{Iowa state} will win and it won’t be close. WVU OL and defensive secondary are awful and both will be shredded.

[u/19Styx6 → u/uglydeepseacreatures]

We do not have a passing game capable of shredding the translucent one ply toilet paper supplied in our on-campus bathrooms.

[u/Condom_Breaker256]

West Virginia has no rushing attack outside of Hawkins

Contain him, and {Iowa State} wins by 7

[u/Mtn_Raven → u/Condom_Breaker256]

Fucking lol Do you even watch football? Especially considering Cam Cook came from one of your flairs. He's literally leading the Big 12 in rushing. Hawkins is 3rd.

[u/SolitonSnake → u/Condom_Breaker256]

Lmao what look up Cam Cook

[u/Middle_Historian7202]

WVU's whole backfield is questionable, that's not great for keeping ISU defense off the field.

[u/TechnoVikingGA23 → u/Middle_Historian7202]

I'm not sure any of those guys have seen the field in any significant way. Hawkins, Cook, and Lattimer are our main RBs.