West Virginia saved its best effort of the season for the Fiesta Bowl—and Oklahoma responded with its worst performance of the year. The result was a complete mismatch from the opening kickoff.
West Virginia rushed for 349 yards, the most rushing yards ever allowed by Oklahoma in a bowl game. For the record, that's 349 yards without starting tailback Steve Slaton, who left in the first quarter with a leg injury.
Speedy freshman Noel Devine filled in nicely, rushing 12 times for 105 yards, including a 65-yard scamper that all but wrapped up the win for the Mountaineers.
If Oklahoma fans want to point fingers after the 48-28 embarrassment, look no further than that "vaunted" Sooner defense. Mountaineer quarterback Pat White accounted for 326 total yards (176 passing, 150 rushing) en route to the Fiesta Bowl's MVP award.
Going into the game, the Sooners knew they had to stop White to have any shot of winning the game. But he was just too fast for the OU defense to contain.
Speaking of speed, WVU had more of it than Oklahoma on both sides of the ball. Sooner left tackle Phil Loadholt looked like he was moving in quicksand compared to the Mountaineer pass rush.
In the end, interim coach Bill Stewart made his case to become West Virginia's permanent coach—and he made it loud and clear. The brass in Morgantown would be foolish to look anywhere else for their next leading man.
As for Oklahoma—the Sooners had been mentioned in the same breath as USC and Georgia as one of the hottest teams in the country. After USC and Georgia demolished Illinois and Hawaii, respectively, OU couldn't hold up its end of the deal.
All is not lost for Sooner fans, however. Coach Bob Stoops has a loaded team returning to Norman next season, led by quarterback Sam Bradford and running back DeMarco Murray.
They'll be favored to win the Big 12 for the third straight season. And, ultimately, they'll be back in the National Championship hunt with Georgia, USC, West Virginia, Ohio State, Florida, and LSU—to name a few.
But in order for Oklahoma to win its eighth national title, they'll have to figure out this current bowl-game funk.
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