Get more information on this matchup with Christian Alexander's Thursday Night Pick Pack!

#21 West Virginia (1-1, 0-0 Big East) at Colorado (2-0, 0-0 Big 12)
Thursday, September 18
8:30 PM ESPN
Folsom Stadium (Natural Grass)
Sports.com Line: West Virginia -3, O/U 57

It seems year after year in college football it gets harder and harder to tell exactly what you’re going to get from a team on a given week. To an extent, I suppose that’s always been true, but it certainly seems the widespread parity in the game has really accelerated the problem. To say the least, it has made handicapping much more difficult.

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Last Thursday night was a perfect example of just how unpredictable teams can be.

Coming off of their season opener against Division 1-AA McNeese State – a game which saw North Carolina have to rally for a 35-27 win over the Cowboys from the Southland Conference – few would have predicted that UNC was primed to break out for an impressive road victory at Rutgers. After all, the Tar Heels had not won a road game outside of the state of North Carolina since a 38-35 win at Arizona State in 2002.

But that’s just what coach Butch Davis and the Tar Heels did. As five point underdogs, North Carolina dismantled the Scarlet Knights in every phase of the game en route to a 44-12 woodshed beating.

Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Don’t worry, neither did I. Coming off a week one loss to Fresno State which I felt was a lot closer than the final score (24-7) indicated, I had Rutgers pegged for a nice bounce back win at home.

Obviously it’s never a sure thing and of course I realized UNC had a chance to stay within five and maybe even pull out a win if things broke their way. But a blowout and one in which Rutgers was pretty much dominated on both sides of the ball??? No, I never did see that one coming. I guess that’s why they call it gambling.

So with a 2-1 Thursday night record under my belt, let’s close the book on Week 3 and take a look at this week’s game.

This week we finally get a chance to get off the east coast and head west, venturing into Rocky Mountain territory as West Virginia travels to Colorado.

This is the third year for coach Dan Hawkins in Boulder and slowly but surely the coach is turning things around for the Buffaloes. Due to scandal and bad play, the Colorado program had basically flat lined when Hawkins arrived on the scene after a wildly successful stint at Boise State where he had established the Broncos as a national threat.

After a rocky 2-10 season in 2006, Hawkins started to make progress last year as Colorado finished 6-7. This year, while it hasn’t always been pretty, the Buffaloes are off to a perfect 2-0 start.

And when I say it hasn’t always been pretty, I mean it’s sometimes been downright ugly. Take the Buffaloes last outing when they faced Division 1-AA Eastern Washington.

Colorado clearly wasn’t ready to play and before they knew it were staring at a 21-7 halftime deficit to the Eagles from the Big Sky conference. Fortunately for Hawkins, his son - starting QB Cody Hawkins - was able to get the offense moving and the Buffaloes rallied for a 31-24 win. Cody Hawkins finished the game with 261 yards and three touchdowns but also had an interception returned for a touchdown.

One would think that Colorado can’t afford a slow start this week as they are facing a team with a ton of offensive firepower in West Virginia. That said, now that coach Rich Rodriguez has departed for Michigan, the Mountaineers don’t seem to have the same punch on offense, despite having Heisman candidate Pat White back at QB.

In fact, in the two games thus far under new head coach Bill Stewart, WVU has not run for 200 yards, a figure they regularly passed sometime around halftime under Rodriguez.  Granted, RB Steve Slaton isn’t running the ball for West Virginia any longer and FB Owen Schmitt isn’t opening big holes but the aforementioned White is certainly there as is a Slaton clone, RB Noel Devine.

The problem seems to be that West Virginia is clearly transitioning into a different type of team under Stewart. When programs fall on hard times and make a coaching change – as Colorado did with Hawkins – it is expected the new coach will implement a new system and after a couple years progress will be seen.

However, West Virginia clearly wasn’t a program in shambles when Stewart took over at the end of last season. Far from it. They were just a highly successful program that had their coached plucked by one of the premiere college football powers in the entire nation.

So, after beating Oklahoma in last year's Fiesta Bowl, I think most people assumed the Mountaineers would continue rolling under Stewart, who had been an assistant under Rodriguez.

However, Stewart is trying to change the identity of West Virginia a bit, especially on offense where the coach is in the midst of a change to a more pro-style offense that would rather throw than pass.

All that seemed fine in the season opening romp over Villanova where White threw five touchdown passes in a 48-21 route. Unfortunately, the next timeout things didn’t go nearly as smoothly as West Virginia was held without a touchdown for the first time since losing 45-3 to Miami in 2001, Rich Rodriguez's first season. East Carolina ended up coasting to a 24-3 win and the Mountaineers went back to the drawing board to try to get things straight in a hurry.

Colorado returns 15 starters from their 2007 squad, including six on offense and eight on defense. Thus far the Buffs are 1-0 ATS as they covered a 12 point spread against rival Colorado State in a 38-17 win to start the year.

West Virginia returns 13 starters from 2007, including eight on offense but just four on defense. The Mountaineers are 0-1 so far against the spread after losing outright to East Carolina as 10.5 point