West Virginia wants to bully opponents at the line of scrimmage and run the ball down the throats of its opponents. That’s the battlefront awaiting the Oklahoma football Sooners as they prepare to take on another power running team with plenty of weaponry in the backfield, including a dual-threat quarterback.
The Sooners (7-2, 4-2) are at a critical crossroads in their season on Saturday. Are they going to allow an impressive 7-0 start to fade sheepishly into the sunset, or instead feed off the energy of a nighttime home crowd to right the ship and finish out the season strong? What happens on Saturday night at sold-out Gaylord Family-Oklahoma Memorial Stadium will set the tone for how OU will finish out the 2023 season.
Playing at home — where the Sooner have fewer losses (13) since the 1999 season than Big 12 football championships (14) — should be a major advantage for the Crimson and Cream, and playing at home at night makes it even more of a challenge for a visiting opponent. In the past four seasons (2019-2022), the Sooners are 10-1 when playing at home at night.
Here is how the Sooners and Mountaineers stack up statistically in a number of major offensive and defensive categories heading into Saturday’s showdown (with national ranking in parentheses):
                                  Oklahoma           West Virginia
Scoring offense                    39.9 (8)              31.4 (39)
Scoring defense                    19.8 (27)             24.3 (55)
Rushing offense                  177.2 (39)           218.0 (7)
Rushing defense                  133.7 (48)           139.0 (56)
Pass offense                     312.8 (10)           201.4 (98)
Pass defense                     248.3 (104)          227.8 (61)
Total offense                     490.0 (7)            419.4 (43)
Total defense                    382.0 (75)           366.8 (61)
3rd-down conversion offense      47.1% (21)           41.9% (49)
3rd-down conversion defense     29.1% (11)           36.4% (47)
Red zone offense                 86.7% (53)           85.4% (62)
Red zone defense                 76.9% (27)           81.5% (55)
Turnover margin                  +8 (10)              +2 (44)