Today is the 101st home game for Bob Stoops as Oklahoma’s head coach. He’s 92-8 in those 16-plus seasons. That’s … that’s solid. They’ve had a 39-game winning streak and two 19-game winning streaks and outscored teams 42-15 on average. Today starts Big 12 play — this is the third straight year these two have opened up the conference schedule with one another, which is weird, right? — and the Sooners are 58-3 here under Stoops against league foes.

These are heady numbers, is my point.

But this is not impenetrable. Kansas State and Baylor won here last year and did so by 1 and 34 points. One won little. One won big. (Both were sellouts, as were the 98 others, so let’s understand people would love to have Oklahoma’s “problems.”)

West Virginia is 6-7 on the road in Big 12 games, going 2-2 in 2013, 1-4 in 2014 and 3-1 last season, and has outscored teams by 56 points in wins and has been outscored by 138 points in losses.

True, a lot of that damage was done the first two years. WVU’s tent showed creases in 2012, and there were some bad days away from home, but that was the first time through the league, and 35 and 21 point losses to Texas Tech and Oklahoma State were followed a year later by 31-, 23- and 12-point losses to Baylor, Kansas State and Kansas (!) on the road. Dana Holgorsen almost foreshadowed such events, except that he likely never imagined them to be that bad or that numerous, or against Kansas (!), on the first road trip cycle.

Last season, WVU won at Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, and the Mountaineers weren’t far off at Oklahoma in 2013. Man, remember that game?

And remember the astute Gabe Lynn avoiding Quinton Spain?

You can revisit a lot of Holgorsen’s history at WVU and look at his 23 losses and argue he should have a few more wins. I mean, he’s 1-3 in overtime. There were two one-play, one-point losses in 2012, five losses in 2013 that followed a second-half lead and one one-point and one one-score loss last season (WVU lost by 10 to Alabama and eight to Texas A&M, but those weren’t exactly winnable games … though there were chances early against Alabama. My point is my point, though).

The Big 12 games against Oklahoma are illustrations of the close-yet-far look WVU has and wants so much to shed. Today. Landry Jones threw a touchdown pass on fourth down in the final minute in 2012. The 16-7 loss was there for the taking a year later. The Mountaineers were surging with a rhythm and a touchdown lead last season and — wait, what’s that noise? Wha? That. That’s Jack White’s music!

Then Samaje Perine happened, and it ended up being a 12-point loss, but the Mountaineers were definitely in it but ultimately out of it, which is the wall the team it has to knock down if it wants to be legitimized. WVU started its revenge tour not last week but last season with the aforementioned road wins, the toppling of Baylor and the escape at Maryland. What happened last week was nevertheless optimistic, but what happens today matters most. The difference between contender and pretender is making the plays that have so far eluded WVU against what’s been the league’s premier team and at one of the league’s best and most difficult venues.

Proceed.