West Virginia-Oklahoma

the Fiesta Bowl Wednesday, January 2nd, 8:00pm Glendale, Arizona
West Virginia (10-2)_____Big East____364.93				Oklahoma (11-2)_____Big 12____409
Week	Opponent	oPts	Res, Score	Week	Opponent	oPts	Res, Score
12	@ Cincinnati	298.97	W, 28-23	7	Missouri	331.01	W, 41-31
13	Connecticut	232.43	W, 66-21	14	Missouri	331.01	W, 38-17
8	Mississippi State	191.93	W, 38-13	6	Texas	275.96	W, 28-21
9	@ Rutgers	146.23	W, 31-3	4	@ Tulsa	164.04	W, 62-21
3	@ Maryland	134.68	W, 31-14	10	Texas A&M	130.38	W, 42-14
11	Louisville	106.21	W, 38-31	13	Oklahoma State	112.55	W, 49-17
4	East Carolina	89.72	W, 48-7	2	Miami (Florida)	46.59	W, 51-13
1	Western Michigan	-65.04	W, 62-24	11	Baylor	-139.20	W, 52-21
6	@ Syracuse	-156.53	W, 55-14	8	@ Iowa State	-155.31	W, 17-7
2	@ Marshall	-158.83	W, 48-23	3	Utah State	-209.20	W, 54-3
5	@ South Florida	316.42	L, 13-21	1	North Texas	-309.82	W, 79-10
14	Pittsburgh	76.94	L, 9-13	12	@ Texas Tech	195.22	L, 27-34
				5	@ Colorado	93.37	L, 24-27

Both the Mountaineers and Sooners are about equal here - some so-so losses, some quality wins...

Mostly up for both teams, but West Virginia looked awful in the last week of the season.

The Line: West Virginia +8.5

The Story: Both these teams are going to be dealing with spectres in this game. West Virginia not only lost the cakewalk that would've gotten them to the championship game, but they lost their head coach too. Oklahoma is returning to the place of their defeat at the hands of Boise State in the classic last year. I think this one will be closer than people are making it out to be - the Mountaineers can still play some mean D and you can bet they're going to be itching to put their best foot forward. With that said, I think the Sooners are stronger overall and should be able to hang on at the end.

The Call: Oklahoma by 9

The Result: West Virginia 48-28 = Ladies & Gentlemen, I think the Mountaineers are going to be just fine without Rich Rodriguez. Gutsy performance on all sides of the ball for them, while the Sooners fell in the post season once again, due a lot in part to sloppy play. Bob Stoops is still one of the best coaches in the country, but you gotta wonder about all those BCS bowl losses in the last 5 years.