Stormin in Norman
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Oklahoma football: Primer on OU-West Virginia gridiron series

By Chip Rouse

West Virginia's Jackie Matthews (3) breaks up a pass intended for Michael Woods II (8) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Oklahoma won 16-13.Lx12791
West Virginia's Jackie Matthews (3) breaks up a pass intended for Michael Woods II (8) during a college football game between the University of Oklahoma Sooners (OU) and the West Virginia Mountaineers at Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium in Norman, Okla., Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. Oklahoma won 16-13.Lx12791 /
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Oklahoma football makes the long jaunt east this weekend to the country roads of Morgantown, West Virgina. for a Big 12 Conference clash with the Mountaineers.

Oklahoma (5-4, 2-4) and West Virginia (3-6, 1-5) have only played each other four times outside of the Big 12, which the Mountaineers joined beginning in the 2012 season.

The Sooners and Mountaineers split four games before West Virginia became part of the Big 12. Since that time, however, Oklahoma is 9-0 in games with West Virginia.

The first time OU and West Virginia faced each other in football was in 1958, the year after Oklahoma’s NCAA record 47-game winning streak ended. The Sooners, ranked No. 2 in the country in the Associated Press poll, hosted the13th-ranked Mountaineers that season.

Oklahoma led 15-0 at the half in the inaugural game between Oklahoma and West Virginia and 27-0 after three quarters. The two teams combined for 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Sooners pulled away for a 47-14 victory. Prentice Gautt, the first African-American player to play football at OU, scored the opening Sooner touchdown and rushed for 68 yards in the game.

OU totaled 599 yards of offense in the 1958 game, 335 of that on the ground, to just 196 yards of offense for West Virginia.

The two programs did not meet again until 1978, when Barry Switzer’s Sooners defeated West Virginia 52-10 in Norman. The two teams met again in Norman four years later, in 1982, and the Mountaineers returned the favor by upending Switzer and the No. 9 Sooners 41-27 in the season-opening game for both teams..

Twenty-six years would pass before Oklahoma and West Virginia met for just the fourth time in history. The No. 4 Sooners, led by quarterback Sam Bradford, were matched up with No. 9 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl. All that season, the Sooners had been tough to run on. In fact, Oklahoma had been one of the top teams in the country in rushing defense all nine years Bob Stoops had been at Oklahoma.

OU’s strength against the run didn’t seem to matter to West Virginia as the Mountaineers pounded the Sooner defensive front, totaling 349 rushing yards against an Oklahoma defense that had allowed just 91.9 rushing yards per game during the 2007 regular season. Bradford had a good game for the Sooners, completing 21 of 33 passes for 242 yards and two touchdowns, but it was no match for the West Virginia offense that pulled away in the second half for a 48-28 upset victory.

The 2008 game was the last time the Mountaineers have beaten the Sooners. OU has won all nine games played under the Big 12 banner, including four in Morgantown. All four games played in Morgantown have been high-scoring affairs Oklahoma has scored 50, 45, 56 and 59 points the last four visits to West Virginia. Over those same four games, West Virginia has scored 49, 33, 28 and 56 points, respectively.

The two teams combined for nearly 1,400 yards of offense in the 2018 game (704 by West Virginia and 668 by Oklahoma).

This will be the Sooners first trip to Morgantown since the 2018 season, when Kyler Murray and OU outgunned Will Grier and the Mountaineers 59-56 in a full-fledged shootout. Oklahoma was scheduled to play at West Virginia in 2020 but a COVID-19 outbreak in the West Virginia team cancelled that game.

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