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United Bank Playbook: Oklahoma State
October 26, 2016 12:52 PM | Football
It seems like each year West Virginia and Oklahoma State have played since the Mountaineers joined the Big 12 Conference in 2012 something unexpected has happened.
In 2012, Oklahoma State defeated West Virginia by the surprisingly easy score of 55-34. A year later, the Mountaineers stunned 11th-ranked Oklahoma State, 30-21, in Morgantown.
Two years ago in Stillwater, Oklahoma, WVU once again pulled off an easier-than-expected 34-10 victory over the Cowboys and last year, Oklahoma State surprised West Virginia with a fast start and led 23-9 in the third quarter before holding on to defeat the Mountaineers in overtime.
So, what is in store for Saturday’s game in Stillwater?
West Virginia has come out of nowhere to enter into the top 10 this week at No. 9 in the Coaches’ poll and 10 in the Associated Press poll with victories over Missouri, Youngstown State, BYU, Kansas State, Texas Tech and TCU.
There have been some blowout wins and some very challenging games as well for the undefeated Mountaineers, looking to go 7-0 for the first time since 2006. West Virginia is certainly expecting another demanding game against the 5-2 Cowboys on Saturday.
Oklahoma State could very easily be in a similar situation as West Virginia. The Cowboys lost a controversial game at home against Central Michigan on September 10 when the Chippewas were erroneously awarded an untimed play to defeat the Cowboys, 30-27.
Two weeks later at Baylor, Oklahoma State committed four turnovers and struggled in the red zone in a 35-24 loss to the Bears. Since then, the Cowboys have recovered to defeat Texas (49-31), Iowa State (38-31) and Kansas (44-20) to get on a little bit of a roll.
“This team can very easily be sitting at 7-0, and that’s the way we have to approach it,” West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen noted.
Cowboy quarterback Mason Rudolph is probably the best pure pocket passer in the Big 12 and one of the better ones in the country. The Rock Hill, South Carolina, resident is completing 62.4 percent of his throws for 2,259 yards and 14 touchdowns so far this year, including a career-high 540 yards and two touchdowns in OSU’s week-four 45-38 victory over Pitt.
In last year’s game in Morgantown, Rudolph completed just 50 percent of his 40 pass attempts for 218 yards, but he did hurt the Mountaineers with his legs on a couple of occasions.
Junior wide receiver James Washington is one of the most explosive playmakers in the Big 12 and the next in a long line of outstanding Oklahoma State offensive threats.
He caught a career-high nine passes for 296 yards against Pitt, including a 91-yarder for a touchdown, and he also had an eight-catch, 152-yard afternoon in the Iowa State victory.
Washington has eight career 100-yard receiving performances to his credit and enters Saturday showing 118 career catches for 2,283 yards and 22 touchdowns.
“The Washington kid makes a difference,” Holgorsen said. “He makes plays in each game and can score at any time. He came out of nowhere a couple of years ago midseason last year he just burst onto the scene and has been playing extremely well ever since then. We have to make sure we know where he is at all times.”
Veteran Cowboy coach Mike Gundy has been searching for a running game and he may have finally found one with freshman running back Justice Hill from nearby Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The true freshman ran for 122 yards in the Baylor loss and has also reached the 100-yard mark against Texas (135) and last Saturday against Kansas (162). Hill is not very big (171) pounds and has struggled some to hold onto the football, but he gives the Cowboys some pop in the run game that they haven’t had since Joseph Randle and Kendall Hunter were there a few years back.
Oklahoma State is now averaging 144 yards per game and 3.7 yards per carry rushing, and shows 11 running plays of 23 yards or longer this season.
Five of those have come from Hill.
“They’ll run it, but the thing that scares you more than anything is just their drop-back passing game, getting the ball downfield and scoring in a hurry,” Holgorsen said.
Defensively, Oklahoma State has given up some yards, particularly on the ground, but the Cowboys have been able to tighten up in the red zone where they are ranked 21st in the country this week in that category.
Oklahoma’s State’s strongest statistical area is turnover margin where it is ranked ninth nationally at plus-seven, thanks mostly to eight interceptions generated by the defense. Jordan Burton, Ramon Richards and Jordan Sterns show two interceptions each, while DeQuinton Osborne and Derrick Moncrief also have picks.
The Cowboys have also created eight fumbles and generated 18 sacks for an average of 2½ sacks per game.
“I have a lot of respect for (OSU defensive coordinator) Glenn Spencer,” Holgorsen said. “They’re a tough bunch to go against. Glen was there when I was there and he’s a smart guy, gets very creative with his schemes and gets his guys playing hard. They were a tricky bunch to go against last year and they’re the same thing this year.
“Probably the best thing they do is get off blocks and make tackles.”
Another aspect to pay close attention to on Saturday is Oklahoma State’s strong special teams play.
The Cowboys have already blocked five kicks this year, are allowing just 16.8 yards per kickoff return, have an outstanding 41.0 net punting average, have the school’s all-time leading scorer in place kicker Ben Grogan and rank 13th nationally this week with an average of 13.6 yards per punt return.
“They just do a good job on special teams. Mike (Gundy) is very influential in that, spends a lot of time with it and they’ll be ready to go so it will be a big challenge.”
West Virginia’s strongest statistical areas include total offense (510 ypg.), passing offense (303.5 ypg.), team passing efficiency (154.91 rating), third down conversion percentage (48.2 percent), team passing efficiency defense (107.27 rating) and scoring defense (17.8 ppg.).
The last two weeks, the Mountaineer defense limited high-scoring Texas Tech to season lows in total yards (379) and points (17), and then held TCU to just 300 total yards and 10 points in last weekend’s 24-point victory - Gary Patterson’s worst since the Horned Frogs joined the Big 12 in 2012.
Quarterback Skyler Howard tossed four touchdown passes against TCU and is completing 66 percent of his pass attempts for 1,821 yards and 12 touchdowns.
WVU’s top four receivers all show more than 20 receptions, with senior Daikiel Shorts Jr. leading the way with 31 grabs for 492 yards and three touchdowns.
Senior running back Rushel Shell III is coming off his second 100-yard rushing performance of the season against TCU and now shows a team-best 465 yards and five touchdowns.
He is just 39 yards shy of reaching 2,000 for his Mountaineer career.
Defensively, senior linebacker Justin Arndt leads West Virginia with 34 tackles, but seven players currently show at least 23 stops, eight different players have at least one sack, and 12 different players have been in on at least one tackle for loss.
The Mountaineers have generated 30 negative yard plays, 12 sacks and seven interceptions while coming up with four fumbles. They have also fared much better against the run by giving up just 186 yards on the ground in their last two wins against Texas Tech and TCU.
Saturday’s game will be the eighth all-time meeting between the two schools with West Virginia holding a slight 4-3 advantage.
“It’s always a fun trip to go to Stillwater,” Holgorsen said. “It’s a great place to play a football game and a great place to watch a football game.”
It’s an early kickoff, 11 a.m. locally and noon on the East Coast, with Fox (Joe Davis, Brady Quinn and Jenny Taft) televising the game nationally.
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG’s coverage begins at 8:30 a.m. ET with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage at 11 a.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via leanStream and the mobile app TuneIn.
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