Radio sideline reporter Jed Drenning provides periodic commentary on the Mountaineer football program for WVUsports.com. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @TheSignalCaller.
 
Life, they say, imitates art.           
 
So does college football.
 
I'm reminded of a determined captain named Ahab and an elusive whale called Moby-Dick.
 
In the 19^thcentury classic by Herman Melville, Ahab lost his leg to the title character, a great white whale. This left the Quaker captain to stomp the deck of his ship with a peg leg, obsessed with tracking the whale down on the high seas for reprisal.  The first encounter with the whale had cost Ahab dearly, but instead of withdrawing he went back for more – vowing revenge. It was a score Ahab pledged, at any cost, to settle.
 
So, with one of the biggest games in the history of West Virginia football just hours away, why are my thoughts drifting to a 585-page novel published 166 years ago? Because great whales aren't always white. They can be crimson and cream too.
 
With a 6-0 record against West Virginia since the Mountaineers entered the Big 12 half a dozen years ago, the Oklahoma Sooners are in many ways Dana Holgorsen's metaphorical whale, Moby-Dick to his Ahab. Holgorsen has beaten every other team in the league, home and away. He's won nearly 60 percent of the matchups against the rest of the conference and has even toppled ranked versions of five different Big 12 members. 
 
But not the Sooners. 
 
Not yet.
 
This time, though, as these two proud programs prepare to square off for the 11^thedition of the series overall and the seventh time as conference counterparts, there's an alluring mantra being whispered. At stake is access to the Big 12 Championship Game at Jerry World in Arlington, Texas, a week from Saturday.
 
Win and you're in.
 
It's a simple premise.
 
What it took to dress the stage for the opportunity West Virginia has when it plays host to Oklahoma Friday night, however, was hardly simple. It took a season of overcoming injuries and adversity. 
 
To get here, the Mountaineers had to outgun what was the No. 1 ranked offense in the country and topple the No. 1 ranked defense in the Big 12. WVU had to outlast a lightning delay, sidestep dubious officiating, overcome a hostile crowd of 100,000-plus and beat two ranked teams on the road for the first time since 2007. One of those victories – in Austin, Texas – saw West Virginia prevail despite allowing 40-plus points. It marked just the third time in the last 83 games the Mountaineers had managed that feat.
 
Oklahoma has done it three times in a row. 
 
Despite yielding 46 points to Texas Tech, 47 to Oklahoma State and 40 last week to Kansas, the Sooners won all three games. According to @ESPNStatsinfo, that makes OU the only team since the Associated Press Poll debuted in 1936 to win three consecutive contests in which it surrendered 40-plus points.
 
And that's the razor's edge on which Lincoln Riley's team has danced all season. In many ways, the Sooners are a case study in extremes. The OU offense is the ultimate hot rod with a purpose-built chassis, but every time QB Kyler Murray and Co. clip the apex of a turn at blistering speed, the Sooners defense careens into the barrels.
 
Even as Oklahoma's defensive shortcomings forced Riley to fire long-time coordinator Mike Stoops and reshuffle OU's staff last month, the scorching success of the Sooners offense was inspiring NFL coaching rumors that had Riley's name attached to teams from Dallas to the Rust Belt. There's plenty to love when you watch tape on the 2018 Sooners, but there's also plenty over which to furrow your brow.
 
At a clip of 576 yards per game, Oklahoma leads the nation in total offense while scoring at a pace (49.5 per game) that no FBS team has enjoyed since 2013. The defense, meanwhile, has given up 426 yards per game – an average of 421 in six games under Stoops, but a slightly more robust 431 since he was let go and Ruffin McNeill slid into the defensive coordinator seat. 
 
Behind the turbocharged play of Murray, the Sooners attack is averaging a gaudy 8.8 yards per snap – easily the best mark in the nation. OU, in fact, is on pace to eclipse the all-time single season FBS record of 8.56 yards per play set by Hawaii in 2006. Conversely, Oklahoma's embattled defense is yielding 35 points per game in Big 12 play. That's the most points per game allowed by the Sooners against conference competition since 1996 when they finished 3-8 under John Blake.
 
It seems every time you start to trumpet the incredible success of the Oklahoma offense, the deficiencies of its defense rear their ugly head. Offensively, the Sooners have rushed for 300-plus yards and passed for 300-plus yards in the same game four times this season. Defensively, OU is allowing a touchdown on 86.5 percent of opponents' trips into the red zone. That's not just the worst in the Big 12, it ranks last nationally (130^thout of 130 FBS teams) and is the worst red zone touchdown percentage allowed by any defense in the entire CFBstats.com database – a statistical archive that tracks back to 2009. 
 
The longer you scrutinize these red-zone numbers the more alarming they become for Oklahoma. All told, opposing teams have breached the plus 20-yard line against the Sooners 37 times and scored on 36 of those forays (including four field goals). Only five times in those 37 red-zone trips has the OU defense actually prevented a touchdown.
 
The Sooners offense is averaging 0.73 points per play (on pace to be the best in the FBS dating back to at least 1996). Last week, OU converted nine of its 10 third-down tries against Kansas, and the one they failed to convert was followed by a successful fourth-down attempt. However, what Jayhawks' freshman RB Pooka Williams did to the Oklahoma defense was just short of criminal. He ran for 252 yards on just 15 carries and took the internet by storm with the most improbable 9-yard gain on a pass reception you'll ever see. 
 
OU linebacker Curtis Bolton immediately diagnosed the play, wrapping Williams in a bear hug when he caught the ball at the line of scrimmage, but Bolton stayed high and instead of completing the tackle, took a ride on the Pooka-go-round. He got spun multiple times as Williams carried him some 15 yards toward the sidelines before two more Sooners defenders joined the fray only to jar Williams loose and watch him reverse direction all the way back across the field for the gain. 
 
This play was to effective tackling what The Beast of Yucca Flats was to fine cinema.
 
Understanding the Sooners defensive struggles is one of the great mysteries in college football. Whatever you choose to implicate as the biggest factor – effort, coaching, poor fundamentals, hard luck – don't suggest it's a lack of talent. The Oklahoma roster is populated by a host of coveted players, and not just on the offensive side of the ball. 
 
Linebacker Caleb Kelly was a five-star from Fresno, California, offered by the likes of Notre Dame, Alabama, Michigan and Oregon. Defensive linemen Neville Gallimore and Marquise Overton, four-star recruits, were highly coveted. Coming out of Ontario, Gallimore chose OU over Ohio State, Florida State and Auburn while Overton spurned offers from half the Big 12 and programs from the SEC and Big Ten to land in Norman. It took a hard push by the Sooners staff to pluck four-star defensive back Kahlil Haughton out of Waco, Texas, on the doorstep of Baylor. Cornerback Brendan Radley-Hiles was the No. 5 ranked CB in the nation out of Brandenton, Florida, and signed with Oklahoma over offers from Clemson and Florida State. Defensive tackle Amani Bledsoe was a four-star player courted by Oregon, Ohio State and Notre Dame, among others. 
 
These are the kinds of bios you read as you browse through the Sooners defensive two-deep. As you do, you're hit by the realization that – with this kind of talent – the Oklahoma defense could quickly become a handful for any offense on any given night if they decide to flip the switch and play up to their ability.  
 
Despite their defensive woes, the Sooners have managed to buckle down and maintain one of the most remarkable streaks in college sports by winning 19 straight true road games, the third longest streak in college football since 1980. OU has scored 41-plus points in 15 of those games while outgaining the opposition 18 out of 19 times. The last time Oklahoma lost a true road game was more than 1,500 days ago on Oct. 4, 2014 at TCU.
 
How, then, has Oklahoma managed to keep soaring -- with three straight Big 12 titles and a remarkable 44-7 record in their last 51 games – despite their inconsistency on defense? Quite simply because the Sooners offense is that good.
 
When you face the Sooners, form takes a backseat to function, and you don't focus on the traditional measuring sticks of solid defense – total yards or even, to an extent, total points. Oklahoma will find a way to rack up plenty of both against any defense in America. 
 
Instead, the focus shifts toward impacting OU's possessions. The three most direct ways to do so defensively are with sturdy play on third down (Oklahoma leads the Big 12 and ranks No. 4 nationally with a third down success rate of 51 percent), forcing turnovers (only eight FBS teams have turned it over fewer times than the Sooners) and – perhaps most critical to your effort – getting scrappy in the red zone, holding them (at least a time or two) to field goals instead of touchdowns. Each time you do so, you're rewarded with a net gain of four points – and that adds up to potentially be the difference in the kind of don't-blink-first shootout into which Oklahoma drags you.  
 
For the second straight year, the Sooners lead the Big 12 in red zone touchdown percentage. A success in this area against this offense is almost the mathematical equivalent to two red-zone successes against anyone else. Study the last two games Oklahoma has lost – to Texas and to Georgia – and you'll notice that both times the opposition found a way to win in the red zone a time or two, or three, holding OU to a field goal and ultimately impacting the final score with those not-so-small achievements. 
 
Led by the No. 8 pick in April's NFL Draft (2017 Butkus Award winner Roquan Smith), the Georgia Bulldogs boasted the No. 6 ranked defense in all of college football. Nevertheless, it took the Dogs keeping Oklahoma out of the end zone three times in seven red-zone trips to help UGA outrace the Sooners in the Rose Bowl on Jan. 1 by a very Big 12-esque final score of 54-48.
 
When Longhorns defensive back B.J. Foster penetrated to blow up a split zone run by Oklahoma's Marcelias Sutton on third down and one at the Texas 14-yard line on the final play of the first quarter in the Red River Rivalry, the game wasn't stopped to present any awards. The additional four points Foster quietly helped protect Texas from by forcing the Oklahoma field goal, though, proved instrumental in the Horns' 48-45 victory. 
 
The good news for West Virginia is that Tony Gibson's defense has enjoyed a few of these unsung but pivotal red-zone moments itself this year in shootout wins. In the second quarter in Lubbock, the Red Raiders had driven 12 plays to the WVU doorstep with a second and goal at the 5. The Mountaineers stiffened with a tackle-for-loss by David Long Jr. followed by a forced incompletion out of the back of the end zone. Instead of a touchdown, Tech had to settle for a field goal just as it would early in the fourth quarter after WVU slammed the door on another goal-to-go opportunity for Tech. Both stops were obviously essential in the Mountaineers' 42-34 win. 
 
In Austin, WVU fans will forever remember Gary Jennings Jr.'s TD grab and Will Grier's two-point game winner. What they won't likely recall are the two crucial red-zone stops by the West Virginia defense in the third quarter that helped keep the game in range for the offense to execute its last-minute heroics. 
 
The Longhorns drove to the WVU 5-yard line but were turned away on fourth and 1. Minutes later, Texas again drove deep into West Virginia territory to create a golden opportunity on second and goal from the 1-yard line. WVU free safety Kenny Robinson Jr. then blew up Horns QB Sam Ehlinger for a 4-yard loss followed by a JoVanni Stewart blitz on third down that flushed Ehlinger from the pocket and forced an errant throw. Texas had to settle for a field goal, and the Longhorns ultimately found themselves on the business end of a 42-41 final score. Against an OU offense that's hit pay dirt on 52 percent of its overall possessions this year, these are the types of red-zone wins the Mountaineer defense will need to put a dent or two in the fender of that Oklahoma hot rod. 
 
Also figuring heavily into how things unfold Friday night will be West Virginia's own offensive roadster. Broyles Award semifinalist Jake Spavital isn't behind the wheel of a jalopy. WVU is averaging 40.9 points per game, placing them within striking distance of the school record 41.1 per game scored by Major Harris and the 1988 Mountaineers. That's high cotton.
 
The Kyler Murray phenomenon, meanwhile, has gained momentum in recent days with some pundits suggesting the Sooners signal caller is closing the gap on Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa in the Heisman race. The headlines involving the OU playmaker are picking up steam. 
 
The last time Will Grier took the field trying to outduel a quarterback he'd spent the week hearing so much about, he was a redshirt-freshman at Florida in 2015 and that QB was Chad Kelly of Ole Miss. Grier shook off the flu, threw four touchdowns in the first half and helped his team dismantle the No. 3 ranked Rebels 38-10. That's who Grier is – a competitor. Couple his penchant for rising to a challenge with the understanding that Oklahoma has allowed 302 passing yards per game in league play – worst in the Big 12 – and all signs point to a big night for No. 7 in his final stand at Mountaineer Field. 
 
But against the 10-1 Sooners, will it be big enoughto help West Virginia beat a team with 10 wins entering a regular season matchup against the Old Gold and Blue for just the second time ever (WVU knocked off 10-1 Rutgers in 2006)? Will it be big enoughto secure the Mountaineers first unbeaten season at home since 2009? Will it be big enoughto give Dana Holgorsen his first victory over Oklahoma?
 
In Herman Melville's novel, Captain Ahab never did kill that great white whale, but don't worry, he never bagged a Longhorn either.
 
Now it's time to complete the set.
 
I'll see you at the 50.