Upcoming Event: Football versus UTEP on September 4, 2026 at 7 p.m. CT
7 p.m. CT
Football
vs UTEP
.png&width=40&height=40&type=webp)
.png&width=40&height=40&type=webp)
University of Oklahoma Athletics
Game Primer: OU vs. West Virginia
October 02, 2015 | Football
STRIPE THE STADIUM
23 West Virginia
15 Oklahoma
October 3 | 11 a.m. | Norman, Okla.
Tickets
FS1
On the Air
Online
TwitterOPENING KICK
• No. 15/14 Oklahoma starts its 2015 Big 12 season when it hosts No. 23/21 West Virginia on Saturday at 11 a.m. CT. The game will be televised by FS1 with Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Kris Budden announcing.
• The Sooners, who are coming off a bye week, posted a 52-38 home win over Tulsa two weeks ago. OU racked up 773 yards of total offense (its most in 27 years and fourth most in program history). QB Baker Mayfield registered a school-record 572 yards of total offense (most by an FBS player this season) and was named Big 12 Co-Offensive Player of the Week, the Davey O'Brien National Quarterback of the Week and the Manning Award Quarterback of the Week.
• West Virginia, which went 7-6 last season and lost to Texas A&M (45-37) in the Liberty Bowl, is off to a 3-0 start with victories over Georgia Southern (44-0), Liberty (41-17) and Maryland (45-6), all at home.
• Oklahoma is 13-3 (.813) in Big 12 openers under Bob Stoops. The Sooners are 14-2 under Stoops in their first Big 12 home game of a season.
• This marks the third straight season OU and West Virginia will have opened Big 12 play against each other (the Sooners won each of the last two openers).
• OU is 16-4 (.800) all-time at home under Stoops against AP-ranked teams. Two of the losses came last season (Kansas State and Baylor).
• The Sooners are 92-8 (.920) at home under Stoops with all 100 of those games sellouts. OU has outscored its foes by an average of 42-15 in those contests.
Oklahoma fans Stripe the Stadium
FIVE TOP STORYLINES
• Oklahoma owns a 5-2 all-time record against West Virginia and is 3-0 against the Mountaineers since they joined the Big 12 (the average score in those three games has been 37-30). The Sooners are 3-1 against WVU in Norman. Last year in Morgantown, freshman Samaje Perine rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns in OU's 45-33 win. Oklahoma ran for 301 yards (6.5 per carry) while holding WVU to 137 (3.4 per carry).
• Oklahoma is 13-2 at home under Bob Stoops following a bye week. The only losses came to Kansas State (24-19) in 2012 and Oklahoma State (38-35 in OT) in 2014. The Sooners are 19-7 overall under Stoops after a bye.
• Saturday's game will pit an OU passing attack that puts up 371.0 passing yards and 3.3 passing TDs per game against a WVU defense that has allowed a Big 12-low 154.0 passing yards per game and just two passing TDs in three outings. The Sooners are completing 66.4 percent of their pass attempts while the Mountaineers are allowing opponents to complete just 45.1 percent of their throws.
Junior quarterback Baker Mayfield
• Junior QB Baker Mayfield ranks second among FBS players in points responsible for per game (28.0), third in total offense per game (400.3), fourth in passing TDs per game (3.33) and seventh in passing yards per game (354.0). According to ESPN Stats and Info, Mayfield is the first FBS player since at least 2000 with three or more passing TDs and one or more rushing TD in each of his team's first three games of a season.
• By a comfortable margin, the Sooners own the best home winning percentage (.920) since the start of the Stoops era in 1999 of any Power Five program. Ohio State ranks second (.878), TCU third (.842), Oregon fourth (.841) and LSU fifth (.841). West Virginia's lone win in Norman came in 1982 (41-27).
SPECIAL ON-FIELD PRESENTATIONS
The sixth of OU's seven national championship teams will be honored at halftime. Head coach Barry Switzer's 1985 squad posted an 11-1 record and, after going 7-0 in the Big Eight, beat No. 1 Penn State 25-10 in the Orange Bowl.
Brian Bosworth
All-Big Eight selections that year were LB Brian Bosworth, NG Tony Casillas, QB Jamelle Holieway, G Mark Hutson, TE Keith Jackson, DE Kevin Murphy, OT Anthony Phillips and DE Darrell Reed. Bosworth, Casillas and Murphy were first-team All-Americans.
Also, Bosworth will be recognized between the first and second quarters by the National Football Foundation for being selected for induction into the College Football Hall of Fame (in December).
SCOUTING WEST VIRGINIA
• West Virginia has outscored Georgia Southern, Liberty and Maryland by an average score of 43-8, with all three games played in Morgantown. The Mountaineers have scored at least 41 points in each contest and have not given up a first-half point.
• WVU ranks fifth in the Big 12 in total offense (543.3 yards per game), third in rushing yards per game (220.3), fifth in passing yards per game (323.0) and second in pass efficiency rating (184.3).
• The Mountaineers' defense has been stellar, leading the country in points allowed (7.7 per game) and turnover margin (+3.0 per game), and ranking first in the Big 12 in passing yards allowed (154.0 per game), pass efficiency rating (78.5), interceptions (3.0 per game), opponent first downs (15.0 per game) and opponent third down conversion rate (28.6 percent). It also ranks second in the league total yards allowed (307.3 per game) and fourth in rushing yards allowed (153.3 per game).
• Junior quarterback Skyler Howard ranks fifth in the Big 12 with his 334.7 total yards per game (sixth with 305.3 passing yards per contest). He is 58 for 84 through the air (69.0 percent) with nine TDs and one interception.
• Junior running back Wendell Smallwood is averaging 110.3 rushing yards per game (ranks third in Big 12) and has run for four TDs. Sophomore wide receiver Shelton Gibson is averaging 109.7 receiving yards per contest (ranks third). He is averaging 27.4 yards per catch to lead the league.
• Senior safety Karl Joseph ranks first nationally with his 1.3 interceptions per game (four in three outings) and has a fumble recovery. He had three picks in the season opener against Georgia Southern. Joseph ranks second on the team in tackles (15), behind senior linebacker Nick Kwiatkoski's 18 (3.5 tackles for loss).
• WVU is 11-16 in Big 12 Conference games since joining the league prior to the 2012 season (5-4 last year).
• Dana Holgorsen (Iowa Wesleyan, '93) is in his fifth season as a head coach, all at West Virginia. He owns a 31-23 record. He also served as an assistant coach at fellow Big 12 programs Texas Tech (2000-07) and Oklahoma State (2010). He and OU offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley were on the same offensive staff at Texas Tech (2003-07).
LAST YEAR IN MORGANTOWN
• Freshman running back Samaje Perine rushed for 242 yards and four touchdowns to lead No. 4 Oklahoma to a 45-33 win over West Virginia in the Big 12 opener for both teams. He became the first Sooner to surpass 200 rushing yards since DeMarco Murray in 2010. Perine got the bulk of the carries in place of Keith Ford, who missed the game due to injury.
• Alex Ross returned a kickoff 100 yards and quarterback Trevor Knight caught a 4-yard pass from receiver Durron Neal on a trick play for the Sooners' other two TDs. Knight finished 16 of 29 for 205 passing yards and one interception, while receiver Sterling Shepard caught six passes for a team-high 101 yards.
• OU trailed 24-17 until Ross' kickoff return with 1:08 left in the second quarter knotted the game. The Sooners outscored WVU 14-3 in the third quarter and 7-6 in the fourth.
• Linebackers Jordan Evans, Eric Striker and Dominique Alexander led the Sooners with 11, 8 and 8 tackles, respectively. Striker logged a pair of tackles for loss, including a sack.
Oklahoma vs. West Virginia in Morgantown.
• West Virginia quarterback Clint Trickett was 25 for 41 through the air for 376 yards and two TDs, but threw a pair of interceptions and lost a fumble. Wide receiver Kevin White caught 10 passes for 173 yards and a score.
• WVU outgained OU 513 yards to 510, but committed three turnovers to the Sooners' one.
SOONERS START QUEST FOR NINTH BIG 12 TITLE
• Oklahoma's performance in the Big 12 Conference since Bob Stoops took over as head coach in 1999 has been nothing short of dominant. The Sooners have won eight Big 12 titles in Stoops' first 16 seasons, with no other program during that span winning more than two.
• Since the first year of the Big 12 in 1996, OU has claimed eight league titles and is followed by Texas (three), Baylor, Kansas State and Nebraska (two each) and Colorado, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas A&M (one each).
• OU owns a league-best 104-28 (.788) record in regular season Big 12 games since the Stoops era began. Texas ranks second with a 97-36 (.729) record during the same span and Kansas State ranks third with a 75-57 (.568) mark.
• During Stoops' OU tenure, the Sooners have racked up a Big 12-leading 36.8 points per game. During the same span, Texas Tech ranks second among other current Big 12 programs by averaging 35.7 points and is followed by TCU (35.2), Texas (35.1), West Virginia (34.0), Oklahoma State (33.8), Kansas State (33.4), Baylor (28.2), Kansas (24.4) and Iowa State (23.1).
MAYFIELD'S HOT START
• Junior quarterback Baker Mayfield is off to a strong start in his first year of competition with the Sooners. A former walk-on at Texas Tech who transferred to Oklahoma (also as a walk-on) after being named Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year as a Red Raider, Mayfield, who is now on scholarship, is tied with Josh Heupel for most total TDs (14) in the first three games of an OU career. He has passed for 10 scores and run for four.
• Mayfield is the first FBS player since at least 2000 with three or more passing TDs and one or more rushing TDs in each of his team's first three games of a season.
• Mayfield set the OU single-game record for total offense (572 yards) against Tulsa last game and tied the school record by accounting for six TDs (four passing, two rushing). His 487 passing yards stand as the fourth most in OU single-game history. He was 32 for 38 passing, and his 226.6 pass efficiency rating was the highest by a Sooner with more than 30 attempts in a game.
• At then-No. 23 Tennessee in the season's second game, Mayfield engineered a comeback from a 17-0 deficit by leading the Sooners to TDs on their final four possessions for a 31-24 double-overtime victory in front of 102,455 fans (the most to ever see an OU game).
• In his first game as a Sooner, Mayfield set the OU record for passing yards in a season opener (388) in a 41-3 win over Akron.
Running back Samaje Perine and quarterback Baker Mayfield
EXTRA POINTS
• In its two home games, OU is averaging 656.0 yards of total offense and 463.0 passing yards. Quarterback Baker Mayfield is 55 for 71 through the air for a 77.5-percent completion rate and is averaging 435.0 passing yards and 3.5 passing TDs.
• The Sooners have outscored Akron (24-0), Tennessee (14-0) and Tulsa (21-14) by a combined 59-14 margin in the third and fourth quarters. OU has outgained its first three foes 773 yards to 372 in those two periods
• OU is the only Big 12 team to beat a ranked opponent this season (won 31-24 in double overtime at then-No. 23/23 Tennessee). The Sooners are going for their second victory against a ranked foe when they take on No. 23/21 West Virginia on Saturday.
Oklahoma is 50-26 (.658) against AP Top 25 teams in the 2000s.
• Senior Eric Striker is OU's all-time leader in sacks among linebackers (16.0)
• The Sooners lead the Big 12 in net punting with their 44.4-yard average. True freshman Austin Seibert ranks third in the league with his 45.8 yards per punt. Seibert doubles as OU's placekicker and has made all four of his field goal tries and all 16 of his point-after attempts.
• Oklahoma is 50-26 (.658) against AP Top 25 teams in the 2000s, good for the second most wins nationally (LSU is 55-31 [.640]).
• OU is 448-105-22 (.798) all-time at home and 376-84-15 (.807) at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.
Players Mentioned
LB
/ Football
LB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
QB
/ Football
WR
/ Football
RB
/ Football
RB
/ Football
K/P
/ Football
WR
/ Football
LB
/ FootballThursday, June 25
Monday, June 22
Monday, May 18
Thursday, April 30
