How The West Virginia Mountaineers Could Ruin Oklahoma State’s Season

The Oklahoma State Cowboys will open their Big 12 slate with the West Virginia Mountaineers. Plenty will be at stake.

Oklahoma State head football coach Eric Morris. | SARAH PHIPPS/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Conference openers usually have significant, but not season-altering stakes. Teams want to win that game, but the season isn’t over after one loss.

Oklahoma State’s Big 12 opener with West Virginia on Sept. 26 is built a bit differently. The Cowboys haven't won a Big 12 game since beating BYU to end the 2023 regular season. After that win, OSU played in the Big 12 Championship Game and lost to Texas.

Since then, the Cowboys haven't won a league game. That’s 18 straight conference games. That has put the program on horrible footing. It contributed to program icon Mike Gundy losing his job. And this game will be new head coach Eric Morris’ first opportunity to put those monsters to bed.

Winning that game could be huge for the psyche of the program and the fan base. But West Virginia could ruin it in Morgantown. Here’s how.

How WVU Can Ruin Oklahoma State’s Season

West Virginia Mountaineers head coach Rich Rodriguez. | Rob Gray-Imagn Images

In many ways, West Virginia is on Oklahoma State’s track as a program, but a bit further along. The Mountaineers welcomed back program icon Rich Rodriguez as head coach last season and the Mountaineers struggled to a 4-8 record and a 2-7 Big 12 mark. They had several problems, including the quarterback position, team speed and overall depth.

Like Morris, Rodriguez didn’t have a full recruiting or transfer portal cycle to work with when he was hired. He had to make do. With a full cycle to work with, Rodriguez and his staff landed a much better recruiting class and knew exactly what they needed to address.

They sought more quarterback talent and landed former Oklahoma recruit Michael Hawkins Jr. to compete with incumbent Scotty Fox Jr. In addition, Rodriguez and his staff worked the portal to get speed all over the field. His system requires it and the Mountaineers didn't have enough of it last year.

Even though WVU runs a spread, Rodriguez believes in the run game and lured Jacksonville State transfer Cam Cook, who rushed for nearly 1,700 yards and scored 16 times last year, to be the offense’s centerpiece.

There is depth and speed everywhere on the field, unlike a year ago. The program looks more like a Rich Rodriguez team. Yes, like the Cowboys there are new faces everywhere. Yes, like OSU, the Mountaineers have a chip on their shoulders.

West Virginia can ruin Oklahoma State’s season in this way. Both teams look evenly matched and are hungry to win. In fact, on paper, this might be Oklahoma State’s “easiest” conference game. Everyone else on OSU’s league schedule had a better record last season than West Virginia did.  If the Cowboys lose that game, they might roll out of Morgantown thinking to themselves, “If we can’t win that game, then which game can we win?” And then the losing streak rolls on and a promising season goes out the window.

Yes, it’s a conference opener with major stakes for the Cowboys.