Sooners favored over Mountaineers in Fiesta Bowl

[BangTheBook]

December 19th, 2007 - Sooners favored over Mountaineers in Fiesta Bowl
The Big East champion West Virginia Mountaineers face the Big 12 champion Oklahoma Sooners in the 2008 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., on Jan. 2 at the University of Phoenix Stadium.

The Fiesta Bowl is one of five Bowl Championship Series bowl games, the others being the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl (both Jan. 1), the Orange Bowl (Jan. 3) and the BCS National Championship Game (Jan. 7).

The Sooners are 6½-point favorites over the Mountaineers at betED.com, which has odds for all College Football Bowl games. The over/under for the Fiesta Bowl is 63½.

The Mountaineers (10-2) captured the Big East Conference BCS bid despite a devastating loss to the Pittsburgh Panthers and finishing tied with Connecticut in the league standings.

Oklahoma (11-2) beat the then-No. 1 Missouri Tigers 38-17 in the Big 12 championship game to reach the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma returns to the Fiesta Bowl for the second straight year after suffering a 43-42 overtime loss to the Boise State Broncos in the 2007 game.

West Virginia will have to play the Fiesta Bowl without head coach Rich Rodriguez, who stunned the bowl-bound football program this week when he announced he was leaving West Virginia to coach the Michigan Wolverines.

Rodriguez’s decision to leave his home-state school came just over three weeks after one of the costliest defeats in WVU’s football history — a 13-9 setback to rival Pittsburgh at Mountaineer Field at Milan Puskar Stadium that kept West Virginia out of the BCS National Championship Game in New Orleans.

The Mountaineers were four-touchdown favorites against the Panthers, who had not won a road game in more than a year. An injury that sidelined West Virginia’s star quarterback Pat White for much of the game made things tougher, and the West Virginia offense failed to score over the final three quarters.

White, the two-time reigning Big East player of the year, is expected to play in the Fiesta Bowl. That sets up a solid quarterbacking duel, as Oklahoma's Sam Bradford finished the season as the nation's highest-rated passer (180.5) and set an NCAA freshman record with 34 touchdown passes.

Sooners coach Bob Stoops' pass defense will be missing one of its top players, with all-Big 12 cornerback Reggie Smith sidelined by a broken toe.

Oklahoma is 1-2 SU at the Fiesta Bowl and West Virginia lost its only appearance, falling 34-21 to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in 1989. The Sooners are 2-1 SU all-time versus the Mountaineers, but the programs have not met since 1987.