What: Fiesta Bowl
Who: No. 3 Oklahoma (11-2) vs. No. 11 West Virginia (10-2)
When: Wednesday, 8:30 p.m.
Where: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.
WagerWeb.com line: Oklahoma -7.5 (63.5)
The Big 12's Oklahoma Sooners, who are coming off a 38-17 rout of then-No. 1 Missouri, face the Big East's West Virginia Mountaineers, who blew their shot at a national title with a 13-9 regular-season finale loss to unranked Pittsburgh.
West Virginia not only lost its last game but also its head coach: Rich Rodriguez has left for Michigan and will not coach in this game. Associate coach Bill Stewart was named the interim coach for this contest.
"We don't expect anybody to feel sorry for us. That's just the nature of this game," Mountaineers safety Ryan Mundy said. "Nothing is forever. We would have liked coach Rod to stay here, but we realize there is a different side to this and there are other assets that we just don't know about."
So while the Mountaineers are motivated to not end their season with consecutive losses, the Sooners have dropped three straight BCS games, losing to LSU in the Sugar Bowl after the 2003 season, to USC in the Orange Bowl after the 2004 season and to Boise State last January.
Both teams feature high-scoring offenses.
The Sooners average 43.8 points, third in the country, and West Virginia puts up 38.9 points per game, 11th nationally.Oklahoma is led by a freshman QB in Sam Bradford.
Bradford completed 70.1 percent of his throws for 2,879 yards, had only seven interceptions and was sacked just nine times - once in the last five games.
Oklahoma's only loss in its last eight games came at Texas Tech on Nov. 17, when Bradford left in the first quarter with a concussion and did not return.
Bradford finished the season as the nation's highest-rated passer (180.5) and set an NCAA freshman record with 34 touchdown passes.
The two other big offensive playmakers are WR Malcolm Kelly and RB DeMarco Murray (764 yards, 13 TDs).
The West Virginia defense is one of the best in the nation, holding foes to a mere 17.2 ppg (7th nationally), while limiting them to just 291.9 yards of total offense (4th nationally).
Like the Sooners, West Virginia is heavily reliant on its quarterback, Pat White. Behind the junior, WVU is averaging 292.9 yards rushing per game (fourth nationally), on 6.0 yards per carry. White rushed for a team-high 1,185 yards and 14 TDs, while throwing for 1,548 yards and 12 more scores. He also has one of the nation's best backs to hand off to in Steve Slaton, who rushed for 1,053 yards and scored 17 times.
WVU's only two losses this year came when White got hurt (against South Florida and Pitt).
They face an Oklahoma run defense which ranks eighth nationally, giving up an average of 91.9 yards.
But OU will be without starting defensive tackle DeMarcus Granger, who will miss the Fiesta Bowl after being sent home from Arizona following an arrest for shoplifting. A 307-pound run stuffer, Granger had recorded 35 tackles to tie for the most among the Sooners' defensive linemen.
Oklahoma is 1-2 at the Fiesta Bowl and West Virginia lost its only appearance, falling 34-21 to Notre Dame in 1989. The Sooners are 2-1 all-time vs. the Mountaineers, but these programs have not met since
1987.
Prediction: A hard game to read. Oklahoma is the better team, but WVU could be fired up to show Rodriguez he made a mistake leaving. OU 31, WVU 27.
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