LAS VEGAS - West Virginia quarterback Pat White will return for Thursday's game against Auburn. White missed West Virginia's 17-6 victory over Syracuse on October 11 with a head injury suffered in a 24-17 victory over Rutgers the week before. The Mountaineers had a bye last week.

Though the Mountaineers captured both of those outings, they failed to cover the spread on each occasion. They were 14-point home favorites against Rutgers and 22-point home favorites against Syracuse. The spread failures lowered their pointspread mark to 1-4 in five board games.

Both outings also dipped ‘under’ the closing total, enabling the ‘under’ to cash in all five of their lined games.

A Heisman Trophy candidate last year, White returned to West Virginia for his senior season but has had a disappointing campaign for the Mountaineers. He rushed for just 428 yards in the Mountaineers' first five games and passed for only 590.

West Virginia suffered back-to-back losses to East Carolina and Colorado before winning its last three games.

The Auburn Tigers anointed sophomore Kodi Burns the starter last week, but said nothing in relation to playing time. Burns started two games, but shared time in three others with Chris Todd.

Todd could see any number of snaps in the ESPN telecast game at Mountaineer Field, but will likely see none at all. He had a shoulder injury last year in junior college and hasn't completely recovered. He's now fourth-string.

Enter true freshman Barrett Trotter, who had been set to redshirt, but is now competing for the backup job and was just added to the travel squad. Sophomore Neil Caudle is the other backup possibility.

But that all seems to be hearsay as Kodi Burns should be the starting quarterback. Burns is 17-of-43 for 198 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions and has run for 116 yards and three scores. Trotter, from Birmingham, Ala., passed for 3,479 yards and 47 touchdowns as a high school senior.

Another similarity shared by WVU and Auburn is that both schools are without starting middle linebackers. The Mountaineers lost senior Reed Williams for the season to a medical redshirt two weeks ago and the Tigers learned last week that junior Tray Blackmon will need season-ending surgery to repair a broken wrist.

Auburn is off a 25-22 loss against Arkansas on Oct. 11 as a whopping 16 ½-point home favorite. It was the sixth straight games where the Tigers failed to cover the spread this season.

Though the combined 47 points leaped ‘over’ the 41 ½-point closing total, the ‘under’ is still 5-2 in Auburn’s first seven contests.

Auburn is 18-5 SU in road and/or neutral-site games since 2004, the nation's third-best record. This is its first non-conference road game since playing Georgia Tech in 2003

Only Auburn and two other teams have played seven games and allowed three rushing touchdowns or fewer Auburn ranks No. 2 nationally in third-down defense. WVU is 32-for-75 on third down this season, tied for No. 44 nationally.

TRENDS: The ‘under’ is 7-2 in Auburn’s last nine overall outings and 6-2 in its last eight road games. The ‘under’ is 6-1 in West Virginia’s last seven non-conference contests.

October 23, 2008