(Football News - Photo Illustration/MetroCreative)

It is remarkable how sometimes perceptions of one’s favorite team can dramatically change during the course of a season.

Following the loss to Pitt we noted here that from a football fan perspective “it doesn’t get any worse than this.”

Just three weeks later we can honestly say that it doesn’t get much better than this.

West Virginia demolished Oklahoma State on their own field Saturday in a 38-14 rout. The Mountaineers amassed 389 yards rushing, had 31 first downs, controlled nearly 43 minutes of time of possession and never officially punted (they lined up to punt late in the game but it was wiped out by a defensive penalty).

The offensive line so controlled the line of scrimmage that WVU passed only 16 times out of 81 total plays. The 65 rushing attempts were the most by the Mountaineers since 2006. The rushing yardage gained was the most yielded by Oklahoma State in 19 years.

West Virginia fans were very concerned late in the first quarter when quarterback Garrett Greene came down hard on his right shoulder after a 39-yard run. The way he was carrying himself off the field looked very much like a serious shoulder injury. Backup Nicco Marchiol stepped in admirably, firing a touchdown pass and then leading WVU on a scoring drive the next possession, but there were sighs of relief when we saw Greene return. Marchiol is certainly a more than adequate backup but this team is at its best offensively when Greene is on the field. The two quarterbacks combined for 132 rushing yards on 17 runs.

The Big 12 Conference is wide open. Teams which were consensus preseason favorites like Utah, Kansas State and Oklahoma State all have at least one conference loss, while some projected further down the standings like BYU, Colorado and Texas Tech have yet to suffer a league loss. Nearly half of the conference matchups have been won by the underdog. It’s been a wild couple of weeks and most of the league schedule remains ahead.

Speaking of underdogs, it is significant to note that in the sixth year of Neal Brown’s tenure as head coach WVU has won twelve games against Big 12 opponents in which they were an underdog.

So while we all become frustrated when tough losses occur, that is a stat worth remembering.

We all know that a team is not going to play a nearly perfect game every week, but it is encouraging that the performance on the road last Saturday tells us that the Mountaineer ceiling is higher than we thought just a short time ago.

THIS SATURDAY: West Virginia sits at 2-0 atop the Big 12 standings along with four other teams, and one of those comes to Morgantown for a night game this Saturday. Iowa State is 5-0, with a solid road win at Iowa and two wins by three TDs in conference. They will be a formidable opponent, but hopefully an enthusiastic home crowd will spur the Mountaineers to another solid performance. WVU 31, IOWA STATE 24.