The West Virginia Mountaineers (2-2, 1-0) will travel for their first Big 12 Conference road matchup Saturday against the Oklahoma State Cowboys (3-2, 0-2). Kickoff is set for 4:00 p.m. EST and the action will broadcast on ESPN2.

Injury Update

West Virginia is relatively healthy after its bye week. Cornerback TJ Crandall left the game against Kansas and is questionable heading into this week.

Receiver Justin Robinson is also questionable after missing the Kansas contest.

Safety Aubrey Burks is expected to return after leaving Mountaineer Field on a stretcher against the Jayhawks.

Linebacker Reid Carrico is expected to return to the field after his absence against Kansas and receiver Preston Fox is expected to be a full participant after he was limited to a couple of punt returns for a fair catch versus Kansas.

Oklahoma State’s 0-2 Big 12 start

They’re coming into this game off two losses, but if you look at what they did last year, playing in the Big 12 Conference Championship game, they had two losses in a row too. They lost to South Alabama and Iowa State, and they rebounded to get all they way to the conference championship game. And so, for coach (Mike) Gundy, and a lot of that staffs been together for a long time, they’ve dealt with adversity before, and they’ve come back. We fully expect to get their best.

Facing reigning Big 12 Player of the Year RB Ollie Gordon II

I think he got banged up a little bit, but he played really well early [last week] against Kansas State (72 yards on nine carries in the first quarter. Finished with 16 carries and 76 rushing yards)

Last year’s game, we did some really nice things defensively. What hurt us is we missed some tackles on third down, a couple of them on Pressley. In the fourth quarter, we tried to force the issue. We got behind after we had the error where we rant into our own punt returner and then we got in a game where we were playing a little bit of catch up and we had to gamble a little bit on defense and then we didn’t split the fit the split zone a couple of times and that’s what hit us. He hit three explosive runs and I think two of them were on split zone and we didn’t fit it very well. He’s a great player. He’s going to be an NFL Player. He’s got great size and speed. We got to make sure we get multiple hats to the ball. We can’t ask our guys to be in multiple one on one situations and always get him down.

He’s played well this season. I don’t think his numbers completely tell the story. He’s going to have breakout games – I just hope it’s not against us.

Oklahoma State defense

Theres some stats their struggling in but there’s some statistics theyre doing really well in too. Where they really stick out is takeaways, third downs and redzones. They’ve done a really good job in those three areas. Traditionally, regardless of who the defensive coordinator is at Oklahoma State, they’ve done a really good job in those three areas.

OSU QB Alan Bowman

He’s sneaky [athletic]. They’ve called some quarterback runs. He’s hurt people with quarterback draw. They ran some quarterback power last week. They have some plays for him.

The thing that he does that is unique is he gets the ball out of his hand really fast. They’ve only given up one sack all year and that’s as much credit to him, probably more credit to him than the offensive line and the offensive line has done a really good job in pass protection, but he gets the ball out of his hand. He makes it really difficult to get to him.

Auburn football finished its five-game home stand in less than desirable fashion, which seemed to be the name of the game throughout the entire start to the 2024 season.

The Tigers saw a late pick six become the difference in Saturday’s 27-21 loss to the Oklahoma Sooners, dropping them to 2-3 overall and 0-2 in the SEC heading into the month of October.

Unlike the team’s other two defeats, this one felt like things were going right for Auburn. While it only scored 21 points, plays were being made and the team was moving the ball. Despite that, it gave up the lead late and horror struck once again for a team with high hopes.

Here is what we learned about the Tigers after the loss.

Quarterback Payton Thorne was benched a short couple of weeks ago and thrown back into action last week against Arkansas after struggles shown by Hank Brown. He responded this week in one of the biggest games of Auburn’s season by playing well, which is what fans desperately needed to see.

There were many good deep throws made with smart decisions, but what fans will remember were the other decisions made, the ones that had them holding their breath and just hoping the ball would not be interceptions.

For the most part, they were relieved of that, that was until the Sooners’ Kip Lewis intercepted a ball on a slant route and ran it back to give his squad a late lead. It answered the question of if Thorne had improved in crunch time, which was no.

On the receiving end, KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Malcolm Simmons have become two of the team’s most reliable targets in the early going, and when they get the ball, it always feel like a big play is in motion.

Running back Jarquez Hunter is also still who every Tigers fan knows him as, a powerful weapon. Despite not breaking 100 yards, Hunter continues to make explosive plays that provide a spark to the offense.

The defense still has many kinks to work out. Containing the quarterback has consistently been a problem all year, and while things improved on Saturday, it gave up two of the more crucial plays of the game in the opening drive touchdown by Michael Hawkins Jr. and his two-point conversion that gave Oklahoma a 24-21 lead.

Demarcus Riddick had an explosive game and proved what he can do with six tackles, including a tackle-for-loss and sack. Look for him to continue growing down the stretch.

For the first time this season, Auburn saw its special teams struggle, as Towns McGough missed both of his field goal attempts on the day, including one right before the half that would have given his team a 17-7 lead and raised the momentum heading into the break. For a young kicker, he still has a lot to grow on, but those two turned out to be a major miss for the Tigers.

Auburn takes the road for the entire month of October, beginning with a trip to Athens to take on the Georgia Bulldogs. That game is set for 2:30 p.m. CST and will be broadcast live on ABC from Sanford Stadium.

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The Oklahoma Sooners rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter for an incredible win over Auburn 27-21 on Saturday. OU scored 17 unanswered points to come away with the improbable win.

Brent Venables and Oklahoma are now 4-1 heading into the first of two bye weeks they’ll have during the regular season. With Texas on the other side of this bye, it’s a good opportunity for OU to get healthy and work on some of the many issues this team still has.

With the win, the Sooners moved up two spots to No. 19 in the latest Associated Press Top 25. The Sooners

They’re eighth out of nine SEC teams in the AP Top 25 after week five. The conference dominates the rankings with four of the top five teams and six of the top ten. ]

Texas dropped to No. 2, as Alabama’s heart-pounding win over Georgia was enough to jump the Crimson Tide over the Longhorns into the No. 1 spot in the eyes of the voters. Texas also has a bye week coming up, sitting at 5-0.

Elsewhere in the SEC, Tennessee moved up to No. 4 and Georgia fell to No. 5 after the loss to Alabama. Missouri sits at ninth, Ole Miss is No. 12, LSU is at No. 13, and Texas A&M hangs on to a ranking at No. 25.

Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on X, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. You can also follow Aaron on X @AaronGelvin.