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MORGANTOWN -- The last time No. 9 West Virginia (8-1, 6-1 Big 12) ventured away from Morgantown with a Top 10 ranking, the Mountaineers limped back to the friendly confines of Milan Puskar Stadium after absorbing a 30-14 setback at the hands of the Cyclones from Iowa State.
"You guys keep bringing that game (ISU) up," WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said. "We are not going to be defined by that one game. We've been playing pretty well since that game. We've won some games, like at Texas, and yet you guys want to bring that game back up.
"We don't talk about the Big 12 championship game or the playoffs. We talk about Oklahoma State and that is all we talk about."
With good reason, the Cowboys (5-5, 2-5) have shown flashes of being one of the better teams in the 10-team league at times, and they have shown signs that they could finish among the cellar dwellers in the conference.
"So, it's a big game, big Big 12 game," Holgorsen said.
"It doesn't get any better that this, so we need to have a good week of practice and get out there, travel the right way and be ready for a hostile environment and handle it the way we know we can if we want to continue to win to remain in the conversation. This is a huge hurdle."
A hurdle the Mountaineers have failed to accomplish during two of its three visits to Boone Pickens Stadium.
In fact, Mike Gundy's OSU squad has had Holgorsen's number the last three seasons, winning by scores of 33-26 in overtime and 50-39 in Morgantown while coming away with a 37-20 triumph on WVU's last venture into Stillwater.
"I don't think there is one simple reason for that," Gundy said. "Both of us have had turnovers. We were able to get more points from ours' last year and that is why we won. But, it's really hard to point to one reason why (we have had success for the last three years)."
A West Virginia win and a Texas win over Iowa State would lock up one of the two berths in the Big 12 Championship game while a loss to the Cowboys and a win by ISU over the Longhorns would push WVU into a tie with the Cyclones (which they would win via the head-to-head tiebreaker) and make next Friday's Senior Night game against Oklahoma a must win for the Mountaineers to reach the title tilt.
WVU holds the tiebreaker over the Longhorns should they win while Texas would hold the tiebreaker if it should end up in a tie with the Sooners.
"I think the key at this point in the season with where we're at with the rest of the games we play, is playing with effort," West Virginia quarterback Will Grier said. "Playing with effort, playing with passion. Like I said, I think we've found our identity."