MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Which Oklahoma State team is seventh-ranked West Virginia going to face Saturday in Stillwater, Oklahoma - the one that routed Boise State and defeated Texas, or the one that lost by 24 to Texas Tech, lost by 19 to Kansas State and lost by four at Baylor?
 
West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said he is preparing for the one that beat Boise State by 23 points and came within a two-point conversion of knocking off sixth-ranked Oklahoma in the annual Bedlam game last Saturday in Norman, Oklahoma.
 
"I know what we're going to expect to see," Holgorsen said earlier this week. "They're scary. They can score points and can look really good at times."
 
The Cowboys (5-5, 2-5) have the most explosive running back in the Big 12 this year in junior Justice Hill, who began the season with 122 yards in the season opener against Missouri State and then ran off three straight weeks of 100-plus-yard games against Boise State (123), Texas Tech (111) and Kansas (189). He also rushed for 119 yards at Texas Tech and had 92 against Texas, but he left last Saturday's Oklahoma game with a rib injury after gaining just 35 yards.
 
His replacement, Chuba Hubbard, gained 104 yards and scored three touchdowns, but he also lost a fumble in the fourth quarter that turned into points for the Sooners. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy said afterward that Hill should be good to go for the Mountaineers this Saturday once he battles through the soreness this week.
 
Hill has run for 140 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns in two prior meetings against West Virginia.
 
Oklahoma State senior quarterback Taylor Cornelius has been the target of criticism this year following in the footsteps of Mason Rudolph, but he's coming off his best passing performance of the season against Oklahoma, completing 34-of-53 for 501 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions.
 
With the exception of South Alabama and Kansas State, Cornelius has done a pretty good job of taking care of the football this year as his 23 touchdown pass-to-eight interception ratio attests. He threw for 428 yards and a TD against South Alabama, 312 yards and four touchdowns against Kansas and 321 yards and three touchdowns in Oklahoma State's 38-35 victory over Texas.
 
Balancing that out, though, was his 184-yard, two-interception effort against Kansas State, his 17 misfires against Baylor and the 20 incompletions against Texas Tech.
 
That's a microcosm of what's happened this year for the Cowboys, coming off three straight 10-win seasons under Gundy, now in his 14^thyear at Oklahoma State. This is his most inconsistent team since the one in 2014 that won seven and lost six to finish seventh in the Big 12.
 
"I'm not sure," Gundy said Monday about his team's up-and-down play. "I guess if I had an answer I'd maybe have a solution to it. I think the easiest way to explain it is when we play smart football, minimize penalties and play under control and not make dumb mistakes, that gives us a chance to be a pretty good football team."
 
Foolish penalties and critical mistakes were a contributing factor in Oklahoma State's 35-31 loss to Baylor when the Cowboys were flagged 12 times for 133 yards. Oklahoma State was penalized eight times for 73 yards in the Texas Tech loss, nine times for 87 yards in the Iowa State defeat and seven times for 70 yards in the loss to Kansas State.
 
That's a sign of a young and inexperienced team.
 
Oklahoma State has also struggled to stop teams, surrendering an average of 171.1 yards per game on the ground, which includes some eye-opening rushing totals in Big 12 play. Texas Tech ran for 224 yards against Oklahoma State; Baylor rushed for 244, Kansas State registered 291 and Oklahoma gained 353 yards in last week's 48-47 Sooner victory. OSU is giving up 4.4 yards per carry and has allowed 21 rushing touchdowns so far this year.
 
The pass defense has been equally generous. Oklahoma State is allowing 255.5 yards per game through the air and permitting its opponents to complete 62.5 percent of its pass attempts for 20 touchdowns and just five interceptions.
 
The Sooners got a whopping 702 yards against Oklahoma State's defense last Saturday.
 
The Cowboys rank near the bottom of the Big 12 in rushing defense (ninth), pass defense (seventh), total defense (eighth) and scoring defense (tied for eighth), which doesn't necessarily match up with the personnel they have on that side of the ball this year that includes two of the Big 12's best pass rushers in Jordan Brailford and Jarrell Owens.
 
What Oklahoma State has been giving up this year should bode well for a West Virginia offense coming off a 535-yard, 47-point performance against TCU last Saturday in Morgantown.
 
Heisman Trophy contender Will Grier had his highest graded performance of the season after completing 25-of-39 passes for 343 yards and three touchdowns. Only two of Grier's 14 incomplete passes against the Horned Frogs were off target as the others were dropped.
 
"He played lights out against TCU," Holgorsen said. "He controlled the whole game.  He controlled the tempo. He understood when to push it and when to not push it. He got a bead on what they were doing defensively and got us into some better plays. He's playing at a pretty high level and obviously we're going to need that type of performance moving forward."
 
Eight different players caught passes from Grier, including five for 86 yards and a touchdown from emerging tight end Trevon Wesco, named West Virginia's offensive player of the game by the coaching staff for the second straight week.
 
Wesco's 86 receiving yards led the Mountaineers - the first time a tight end has done that in 16 years.
 
Senior wide receiver David Sills V caught his Big 12-best 12^thtouchdown pass against the Horned Frogs, but dropped two others that were certain TDs. Sills V leads the Mountaineers with 49 catches for 697 yards and 12 touchdowns, while senior Gary Jennings Jr. shows 40 catches for 600 yards and 10 scores.
 
Third receiver Marcus Simms has 37 catches for 635 yards and two touchdowns while tight ends Wesco and Jovani Haskins have combined to grab 31 passes for 367 yards and a pair of touchdowns.
 
Grier has thrown touchdown passes to 11 different players this year and is completing nearly 70 percent of his attempts for 2,961 yards and 31 touchdowns with eight interceptions.
 
The ground game has come alive since the Iowa State loss, the Mountaineers averaging 189.3 yards during their last three wins against Baylor, Texas and TCU.
 
The bulk of it has come from three players – junior Kennedy McKoy (500 yards), junior Martell Pettaway (458) and freshman Leddie Brown (383). All three have four rushing touchdowns apiece.
 
"They're similar to the team we just played," Gundy said of West Virginia. "They're fantastic on offense. Obviously, they have an experienced quarterback who has made a lot of plays. They're good up front in their offensive line and they've got wide receivers that are making play after play after play."
 
Defensively, West Virginia rebounded from its 520-yard, 41-point outing at Texas by limiting TCU to just 222 total yards, which included minus-7 yards rushing. It's the first time in eight years a Mountaineer defense has held the opposition to negative rushing yards.
 
Junior linebacker David Long had three sacks and four tackles for losses against TCU and now leads the Big 12 with 17 ½ tackles for losses. His eight sacks are second to Brailford's nine to lead the conference.
 
Long Jr. is also fourth in the Big 12 in tackles averaging 9.3 per game.
 
West Virginia ranks second in rushing defense (121.0 ypg.), second in scoring defense (20.9 ppg.), second in pass defense (233.2 ypg.) and second in total defense (354.2 ypg.).
 
"They're a very attacking defense that can run and get to the ball really fast," Gundy noted.
 
Last year in Morgantown, Oklahoma State took advantage of five West Virginia turnovers to win a shootout, 50-39. In that game, the Cowboys ran for 246 yards and limited the Mountaineers to just 62 yards on 30 attempts.
 
Oklahoma State has won three straight over West Virginia by scores of 33-26, 37-20 and 50-39 after WVU defeated the Cowboys 34-10 in Stillwater in 2014.
 
Gundy is 4-2 against West Virginia.
 
The race to reach this year's Big 12 championship game on Dec. 1 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, has come down to four teams – Oklahoma, West Virginia, Texas and Iowa State.
 
The Sooners have Kansas at home this Saturday while the other key matchup is Iowa State playing at Texas. A West Virginia victory over the Cowboys and an Iowa State loss at Texas would get the Mountaineers into the championship game regardless of what happens next Saturday in Morgantown against Oklahoma.
 
Otherwise, West Virginia would need to win out to assure its spot in the championship game.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ABC (Sean McDonough, Todd Blackledge and Holly Rowe). 
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG's coverage begins at noon with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate show leading into regular game coverage at 2:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app TuneIn.
 
Saturday's game will be WVU's fifth-ever appearance in Stillwater where the Mountaineers have a 2-2 record.

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