MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A prime-time matchup at No. 3 Oklahoma awaits the West Virginia University football team this Saturday.
 
West Virginia, coming off a heart-stopping 27-21 victory over Virginia Tech last Saturday, is looking to crack the seal on a Big 12 victory over Oklahoma – the only school the Mountaineers have yet to defeat in their 10^th year in the league.
 
West Virginia's losses to the Sooners have been close, not-so-close and everything in between. The last time these two teams met in Norman in 2019, during coach Neal Brown's first season at WVU, OU rolled to an impressive 52-14 victory – one of the worst defeats Brown has endured during his seven seasons coaching college football at West Virginia and Troy.
 
Last year, the two teams tried twice to play games in Morgantown on Nov. 28 and Dec. 12 and both attempts were aborted because of COVID 19.
 
Saturday's game will be the 13^th in a series heavily slanted in Oklahoma's favor. The Sooners have lost only twice to West Virginia, once in Norman in 1982 and the other time in Glendale, Arizona, in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl.
 
"We're going into one of the most tradition-rich venues in the country playing a team that's ranked No. 3 in the country; they have NFL talent on offense, defense and special teams so it's going to be a huge challenge," Brown said.
 
Oklahoma's Big 12 dominance of winning six straight Big 12 championships has certainly been felt by the Mountaineers, particularly since Lincoln Riley took over the head coaching reins in 2017.
 
In its three meetings against Oklahoma with Riley running the show, West Virginia is giving up an average of 56.7 points and 624.7 yards per game, or the equivalent of 1.06 miles of territory. Astonishingly, Oklahoma is averaging almost 11 yards each time it has called a play against the Mountaineers during that span of time.
 
Clearly, that's not been a formula for success for West Virginia and its first objective on Saturday is going to be figuring out a way to slow Oklahoma's high-powered offense.
 
The Sooners (3-0) have another Heisman Trophy contender in sophomore quarterback Spencer Rattler, who is completing nearly 75% of his 99 pass attempts for 761 yards and seven touchdowns.
 
The OU receiver corps is one of the best in the country with this year's group now including last year's ESPN No. 1-ranked receiver Mario Williams, who shows 13 catches for 115 yards and two scores. Jadon Haselwood, a 6-foot-3, 202-pound sophomore from Ellenwood, Georgia, leads the team with 14 catches for 127 yards and two touchdowns.
 
Marvin Mims, a 5-foot-11, 177-pounder from Frisco, Texas, is the Sooners' big-play threat with an average of 21 yards per catch on his eight receptions so far this year.
 
As always, Oklahoma has NFL talent up front as well as another dangerous tight end combo in H-backs Jeremiah Hall and Brayden Willis.
 
Surprisingly, OU has just two scholarship tailbacks on its roster this year but both are all-conference caliber runners in juniors Eric Gray and Kennedy Brooks.
 
"Defensively, when we line up against them we know Rattler is a Heisman Trophy candidate," Brown said. "They have one of the best receiver groups in the country, their offensive line is a strength for them and they have two really talented running backs – one of them was an All-SEC running back (Gray) and one of them was an All-Big 12 running back (Brooks) in their past.
 
"They're talented, and we've got to do a really good job of eliminating explosive plays, and we've got to limit them in the run game," Brown added.
 
Defensively, coordinator Alex Grinch has completely changed the mindset of a Sooner defense that no longer takes a backseat to the offense. OU has held its last 11 opponents to less than 50% in third-down conversions with Nebraska's 43% success rate being the highest during the streak.
 
Before Grinch took over in 2019, Oklahoma's defense was allowing an average of 424.3 yards per game during a two-year stretch from 2017-18. Since then, the Sooners are down to 350.2 yards per game, including a stingy 117.3 yards per game on the ground.
 
Last year, Oklahoma ranked third nationally in interceptions (16) and fourth in third-down conversions, allowing its opponents just a success rate of 27.9%.
 
In last Saturday's 23-16 victory over Nebraska, the Sooners limited the Huskers to 364 yards and 13 points while adding two points to the team's scoring total when the kick block unit returned a missed PAT attempt 100 yards in the third quarter.
 
Outside linebacker Nik Bonitto led OU's defense with a pair of sacks and three tackles for loss against the Cornhuskers. Linebacker DaShaun White produced a career-high 10 tackles and cornerback D.J. Graham had the play of the week in college football when he made an incredible one-handed interception deep in Oklahoma territory to preserve the Sooners' 23-9 lead.
 
"Their defensive front is maybe the most talented in our league, and probably one of the most talented in all of college football, so we're going to have to know where those guys are and we're going to have to give our offensive line the best opportunity to be successful," Brown noted. "Another important factor in this is we're going to have to win some one-on-ones. They put you in a position where you have to win some one-on-ones and we're going to have to do that."
 
Oklahoma's wins this year were 40-35 against Tulane, 76-0 against Western Carolina and 23-16 against Nebraska, all in Norman. 
 
Saturday's game will be OU's fourth straight at home. The opener was originally slated to be played in New Orleans, but the contest was moved to Oklahoma when Hurricane Ida forced New Orleans to be evacuated.
 
West Virginia's four appearances in Norman since joining the Big 12 have resulted in 16-7, 44-24, 59-31 and 52-14 defeats. Oklahoma has scored more than 44 points in seven of the last eight meetings against WVU.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET and will be televised nationally on ABC.
 
"When you are playing the No. 3 team in the country on the road, on ABC with (Chris) Fowler and (Kirk) Herbstreit, you don't have to worry about (an emotional) bounce back," Brown said. "This is a humungous challenge for us and it's one that we welcome."
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 4 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia and online via WVUsports.com and the popular mobile app WVU Gameday. Mountaineer fans can also catch the regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning on Sirius channel 138 and XM channel 203.
 
The team is scheduled to fly out to Oklahoma on Friday afternoon and return immediately following the game.