MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – This Saturday, will we see the Oklahoma State team some people thought was talented enough to challenge Oklahoma for the Big 12 championship, or will we see the Cowboy team that struggled to put away a Tulsa team picked to finish ninth in the AAC last weekend?

Well, that depends.

If dynamic sophomore quarterback Spencer Sanders’ injured ankle isn’t better, it could be more of the latter against West Virginia, which opens conference play this Saturday against the 15th-ranked Cowboys in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

With Sanders, a former four-star recruit out of Denton, Texas, Oklahoma State was 7-3 last year, and last weekend it marched right down the field on its opening drive to get points against Tulsa.

Without him, OSU’s high-powered offensive attack was grounded. The Cowboys generated just 13 points, 206 total yards and 13 first downs for the remainder of the afternoon – a continuation of what happened to Oklahoma State when he wasn’t on the field as a freshman late last season.

Among the games Sanders missed was last year’s game in Morgantown when he was sidelined with a thumb injury.

The Cowboys lathered up running back Chuba Hubbard for 26 carries that afternoon and the Alberta, Canada, resident responded with 106 yards while also catching a career-best seven passes for 86 yards.

“Offensively, they’ve got some weapons,” Mountaineer second-year coach Neal Brown said earlier this week. “Obviously, Chuba is as good as any running back in the country. Tylan Wallace is back in the fold and I think Dillon Stoner has been extremely productive so it’s a huge challenge for us.”

The story of last year’s game, however, was Oklahoma State’s defense stonewalling West Virginia, just as it did to Tulsa last Saturday.

The Cowboys surrendered 307 yards through the air against West Virginia during last year’s game, but didn’t budge an inch once the Mountaineers got near the goal line. A second-quarter Sam James touchdown reception was overruled by the replay official and a sure-fire 7 points was reduced to 3 when the drive went backwards and Evan Staley had to kick a 22-yard field goal.

WVU’s lone touchdown came on Jarret Doege’s 34-yard pass to George Campbell in the second quarter. Oklahoma State grabbed the lead in the fourth quarter when Stoner caught a 2-yard touchdown pass and Matt Ammendola concluded the scoring with a 22-yard field goal in a 20-13 OSU win, its fifth straight over West Virginia.

“When they go man or they try and zero (coverage) you have to make them pay for it,” Doege said. “Last year, they did that to us a couple of times, and I think we made them pay once and a lot of the times they got us. You’ve got to get them more than they get you.”

Ten starters from that Cowboy defensive unit return and it showed during last Saturday’s 16-7 win over Tulsa. The Golden Hurricanes were a ridiculous 0-for-12 on third down and ran just 59 plays against Oklahoma State’s defense.

During his video conference with media earlier this week, veteran cowboy coach Mike Gundy was asked to single out some of his top defensive performers from last Saturday’s game and he nearly named all of them.

The Oklahoma State defenders who really caught Neal Brown’s eye were junior safety Kolby Harvell-Peel, linebackers Malcolm Rodriguez and Amen Ogbongbemiga, and sophomore defensive end Trace Ford.

“I think they’ve got a linebacker crew with Rodriguez and Amen (Ogbongbemiga) as talented as anybody in the league and you can tell Trace Ford has added to his game over the offseason,” Brown said.

Brown also thinks there is NFL talent in the Oklahoma State secondary, which enables the Cowboys to play a lot of man coverage on the outside which allows its front seven to bring pressure from a number of different areas.

That means West Virginia’s young wide receivers are going to have to win some one-on-one battles to keep the chains moving and avoid third-and-long situations where Oklahoma State’s first- and second-level defenders can pin their ears back and come after Doege.

Last week, Oklahoma State only got to Tulsa quarterback Zach Smith once, but it hurried him five times, generated seven tackles for losses and picked him off once.

Speaking of sacks, a musical-chair Cowboy offensive line gave up six sacks last Saturday, four of which were backup quarterback Ethan Bullock, who completed 8-of-13 passes for just 41 yards before giving way to true freshman Shane Illingworth.

The Norco, California, resident completed four of his five pass attempts for 74 yards and directed two second-half drives that resulted in 10 points.

If Sanders is unable to go, then Illingworth is likely to get the call on Saturday.

“We’ve got three guys available, and we will have to make that decision based on practice reps,” Gundy said Monday. “Spencer will be out of a boot (on Tuesday) and then we reevaluate him. His injury is mild, so I would think he would be okay but you never know.”

“We will game plan as if Sanders is going to play,” Brown said. I think that’s how we have to go about it, and we’ll adjust if he doesn’t.

“He’s got elite speed for the quarterback position and you could see that on a couple of the runs he had early on the contest on Saturday, but also in the games last year,” Brown added. “He can really run the football on called runs or during scramble situations; that’s why you go about preparing like he’s going to be the starter.”

Wallace, an NFL-caliber receiver who missed the latter part of last season with a knee injury, including the WVU game, led Oklahoma State with four catches for 94 yards last Saturday.

Hubbard, who finished with a game-high 93 yards, was the only Oklahoma State player to reach the end zone when his 3-yard touchdown rush began the fourth quarter.

Former two-year West Virginia starting offensive guard Josh Sills was in the starting lineup for Oklahoma State last Saturday and is listed as the starting left guard for Saturday’s game.

Brown said facing Sills will be a non-issue for his team on Saturday.

“Josh has been really good for us,” Gundy added. “It took him quite a while to get back into shape and then the virus hit and he went back home and I think hunted for three months and had to get back into shape again, but he likes to play football.”

OSU’s other starting guard, redshirt freshman Cole Birmingham, left the Tulsa game with a foot injury that Gundy labeled as “more serious” than the one Sanders suffered.

If he can’t go, redshirt freshman Preston Wilson is listed as his backup on the depth chart.

“When you have six different people moving to multiple spots during a game you are not going to have as much continuity and consistency as you want,” Gundy said.

“Their offensive line, as far as moving spots, that won’t affect us as far as how we are going to defend them in the game,” Brown said.

West Virginia should be in good shape physically on Saturday. The Mountaineers used 60-plus players during their season-opening win over Eastern Kentucky two weeks ago and used the open week as a continuation of preseason training camp.

Doege completed 19 of his 25 pass attempts for 228 yards and three touchdowns in just two quarter’s-worth of work against the Colonels. 

Juniors Leddie Brown and Alec Sinkfield each rushed for 123 yards to lead a revitalized WVU ground game that churned out 329 yards in its 56-10 win.

West Virginia’s inability to rush the football and get movement up front was a major factor in last year’s loss to Oklahoma State. WVU’s defense was certainly up to the task, limiting the Cowboys to 285 total yards and just 89 on the ground.

Last year’s victory was the fifth straight for Oklahoma State in a series the Cowboys now lead 7-4. West Virginia’s last victory over Oklahoma State happened in Stillwater in 2014 when the Mountaineers rolled to a 34-10 triumph.

For the first time this season, WVU will be facing fans in Stillwater. Oklahoma State announced last month that Boone Pickens Stadium will be limited to 25% capacity because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The official attendance for last Saturday’s Tulsa game was listed as 14,668.

West Virginia did not have spectators for its first game against Eastern Kentucky and the school announced Monday that no spectators other than immediate family and essential game operations personnel will be admitted for the Mountaineers’ Big 12 home opener against Baylor on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Provided everything goes well with COVID-19 testing this week, West Virginia is scheduled to fly to Stillwater on Friday afternoon.

Saturday’s game will kick off at 3:30 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ABC (Bob Wischusen, Dan Orlovsky and Kris Budden).

“I have a lot of respect for coach Gundy and how he's built that program,” Brown said.

Mountaineers Sports Network from Learfield IMG College radio coverage will begin with the Go-Mart Mountaineer Tailgate Show at noon on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular WVU Game Day mobile app.

Regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Jed Drenning and Dwight Wallace will begin at 2:30 p.m.