MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Oklahoma State began this season ranked 17^th in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll. But as of today, the Cowboys sit at 0-2 in Big 12 play following consecutive losses to Utah and Kansas State and now have their backs against the wall. 
 
It was a similar deal last year when Oklahoma State dropped consecutive September games to South Alabama and Iowa State before veteran coach Mike Gundy rallied his team to five straight victories and eventually to the Big 12 championship game.
 
Among those wins was a 48-34 triumph in Morgantown that featured the fourth quarter running of Ollie Gordon II, who gained 141 yards in the final stanza alone and finished the contest with 282 yards and four touchdowns.
 
It was the beginning of a two-week stretch that saw the Fort Worth, Texas, resident rush for 271 yards and two scores in a home win against Cincinnati on the way to a 1,732-yard, 21-touchdown sophomore season.
 
So far this year, Gordon got things started with a 126-yard, three-touchdown effort in the season opener against South Dakota State but has followed that up with consecutive games of 49, 41, 42 and then 76 yards during last Saturday's loss at Kansas State.
 
Most of his yardage against K-State came early in the game when the Cowboys failed to capitalize on their 13-7 lead. A missed field goal and a red zone turnover preceded a Wildcat flurry that resulted in 35 unanswered points and a 42-20 Kansas State victory.
 
Consequently, quarterback Alan Bowman was required to throw 50 passes, completing 26 for 364 yards with two interceptions. Bowman, whose college career began at Texas Tech six years ago in 2018, has passed for at least 200 yards in all five games this season and has topped 300 in three of his last four, which puts Oklahoma State in somewhat of a conundrum this weekend against West Virginia.
 
Do the Cowboys try and duplicate what they did last year on the ground with Gordon, or do they take advantage of a Mountaineer secondary that ranks 125^th overall in pass efficiency defense with a 160.61 rating?
 
West Virginia coach Neal Brown is betting on OSU giving the ball to Gordon first and then working off that with its RPO game.
 
"They are going to give him the ball and we're not going to stop him, but we've got to eliminate his explosive runs," he noted. "He's a big, powerful back who has the speed to take it the distance. We've got to do a really good job of getting multiple hats to him, we've got to hit him before he's able to get started and get multiple people to him."
 
In its first three games, WVU surrendered eight touchdown passes and consecutive 300-yard passing performances against UAlbany and Pitt before making some personnel and schematic changes against Kansas that limited the Jayhawks to 184 yards and a touchdown through the air.
 
On the other hand, Kansas was able to run for 247 yards and three touchdowns in a game WVU managed to rally and win in the fourth quarter, 32-28. WVU's only three-and-out defensive series came late in the game when Kansas was trying to milk the clock and preserve its 28-25 lead.
 
If West Virginia tries to load the box to stop Gordon in the run game, that opens passing lanes for Bowman to look for Brennan Presley, a 5-foot-8, 175-pound speedster from Tulsa, Oklahoma, or De'Zhaun Stribling, a 6-2, 200-pound Washington State transfer from Kapolei, Hawaii.
 
Presley has given West Virginia plenty of issues in the past, including a nine-catch, 62-yard, one-touchdown performance last year in Morgantown. In three career games against WVU, Presley has caught 20 passes for 192 yards and a touchdown.
 
Last Saturday in Manhattan, Kansas, Stribling hauled in a 77-yard touchdown pass and finished the game with seven catches for 157 yards. He leads the team with 27 catches for 502 yards and three touchdowns, one fewer than Presley's four touchdown catches.
 
Bowman has an uncanny knack of getting the ball out quickly and is rarely sacked. A veteran Oklahoma State offensive line has allowed opposing defenses to get to the quarterback just once this year in 214 pass attempts.
 
"They're going to try and run the football, they're realty good in the RPO game and they throw the go-ball as good as anybody in college football," Brown said. "That's been the case for a really long time."
 
Defensively, Oklahoma State is transitioning from a three-down to a four-down front under second-year coordinator Bryan Nardo, but still possesses big, physical corners and some second-level disrupters in linebackers Nick Martin and Obi Ezeigbo. Those two have combined for 13 ½ of Oklahoma State's 33 tackles for loss, while teaming up for three sacks.
 
Kendal Daniels, another active linebacker, shows two sacks and four TFLs.
 
Martin, who logged 17 tackles in last year's game in Morgantown, limped off the field during the fourth quarter of last Saturday's loss at Kansas State and is questionable this weekend. If he can't go, senior Jeff Roberson moves into the starting lineup with Daniels probably sliding over to Martin's spot. 
 
The Cowboys feature a pair of 300-pounders up front in Iman Oates and Collin Clay, while the two corners, Korie Black and Cam Smith, both stand 6 feet and weigh better than 190 pounds.
 
The Oklahoma State secondary has produced six interceptions, including one by backup cornerback Kale Smith going for a 73-yard touchdown against Arkansas.
 
The Cowboys (3-2, 0-2) are very aggressive, which has resulted in giving up some yardage this year, but they make up for it by creating takeaways and playing stout red zone defense, according to Brown.
 
"They're always good in the red zone and that's really where we've had our struggles with them," he pointed out. "They are always one of the top takeaway teams in the country and they're really good on third downs."
 
OSU's special teams are now coached by Sean Snyder, who has made a name for himself in the profession for many years coordinating Kansas State's special teams for his father, Bill Snyder.
 
Paul Randolph, a familiar name to Mountaineer fans when he spent two years on Rich Rodriguez's West Virginia staff two decades ago, is in his first year coaching the Oklahoma State defensive linemen.
 
The rest of Gundy's staff has been with him for at least five years or longer.
 
Meanwhile, WVU quarterback Garrett Greene is coming off an impressive performance against Kansas by rallying the Mountaineers from 11 points down with less than five minutes remaining. In four games so far this season, the senior has passed for 902 yards and seven touchdowns while adding 209 yards and two scores on the ground.
 
Greene has had effective games against Oklahoma State in the past, including last year's 249-yard, two-touchdown passing and 117-yard rushing effort in Morgantown. Last weekend, Kansas State quarterback Avery Johnson hurt the Cowboys with 60 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, while passing for 259 yards and three scores.
 
"You got to stop their quarterback," Gundy said earlier this week. "He's a good runner. Very similar to what we saw last week. 
 
"Experience has helped him," Gundy added, "and I'm guessing the relationship he has with his play-callers and position coach … they're further along now just from experience. He's been good at rushing the ball and they do a good job with that. We have to control the quarterback and keep him from flushing out and running around."
 
Junior CJ Donaldson Jr. leads the Mountaineer rushing attack with 284 yards and three touchdowns, while sophomore Hudson Clement is now the team's top receiver with 14 catches for 231 yards and a touchdown.
 
Tight end Kole Taylor shows 11 catches, one behind Traylon Ray, with two touchdowns. Oklahoma State has given up four touchdown passes to tight ends so far this year, so Taylor could be a player to keep an eye on when the Mountaineers get into the red zone.
 
Senior safety Anthony Wilson has assumed the team lead with 29 tackles, one better than linebacker Josiah Trotter and four more than outside linebacker Trey Lathan.
 
Troy transfer T.J. Jackson has a team-best 8 ½ tackles for loss and 3 ½ sacks.
 
Saturday's game will be the first time West Virginia gets on an airplane this season, while Oklahoma State will be playing its sixth consecutive game before finally hitting the pause button on Oct. 12.
 
The Mountaineers (2-2, 1-0) were able to heal up last weekend after their first four games against Penn State, UAlbany, Pitt and Kansas.
 
"We're 1-0 in the league and now the focus moves from the bye week, which was about rest and recovery, to getting ready to play Oklahoma State," Brown said. "We played well at the end of the game versus Kansas. Now, there is a lot of stuff that we have to do better, but our confidence should be growing as we head into this game."
 
This weekend's affair begins a four-game gauntlet of conference games that include games coming up against 16^th-ranked Iowa State, 20^th-ranked Kansas State and a trip to Arizona, which is celebrating its recent 23-10 triumph against Utah.
 
Saturday's game will kick off at 4 p.m. and will be televised nationally on ESPN2 (Mike Monaco, Kirk Morrison and Dawn Davenport).
 
Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 1 p.m. with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage with Tony Caridi, Dwight Wallace and Jed Drenning at 3 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
 
West Virginia defeated Oklahoma State 24-19 the last time these two met in Stillwater in 2022, and the Mountaineers also show a victory there in 2014. Overall, Oklahoma State owns a 9-3 series record against West Virginia since 2012 and is 10-5 overall in a series that began in 1928 when OSU was known as Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College.