2008 Fiesta Bowl - Pre-game Buildup

Pre-game Buildup

This game marked Oklahoma's fourth trip to the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma defeated Wyoming in 1976 before losing to Arizona State in 1982 and in overtime to Boise State in 2007. West Virginia made their second trip to the Fiesta Bowl. Their only other trip was in 1989 when they lost the national championship game to Notre Dame. This was also the fourth time these two programs have played each other, but the first time in postseason. Oklahoma defeated West Virginia in 1958, by a score of 47–14, and in 1977, by a score of 51–10. West Virginia defeated Oklahoma in 1982 by a score of 41–27. All three games were in Norman, Oklahoma.

On December 16, 2007 Rich Rodriguez formally announced to his football team that he would be leaving, before the 2008 Fiesta Bowl, to succeed Lloyd Carr as the University of Michigan head coach. West Virginia associate head coach Bill Stewart was named the interim football coach for the Fiesta Bowl on 2007-12-18 and was subsequently hired as the permanent coach.

On 2007-12-17, Stewart Mandel, a writer for Sports Illustrated, revealed that Oklahoma's athletic director, Joe Castiglione had tried to arrange for Oklahoma to face the highest ranked opponent available, which would have been Virginia Tech, in the Orange Bowl. This would have pitted the #3 team against the #4 team. Big 12 Commissioner Dan Beebe contacted BCS officials (which includes the 11 conference heads and the athletic director of Notre Dame) to see if this could be done. Mike Slive, then the BCS commissioner and SEC commissioner, considered the idea but it was ultimately rejected. There was no word on which officials voted against the proposition. Beebe stated he did not agree with the decision, but respected the views of those against it. Castiglione stated that he hopes "at some point in time we can hear an explanation of why this wasn't possible given the fact the rules provided the opportunity if it was in everybody's best interest." Mandel said that two of his sources speculated that the commissioner "feared such a matchup might damage the legitimacy of the Ohio State-LSU title game." Slive said "there weren't such compelling circumstances as to merit a change."

Oklahoma missed some key players on their defense. Reggie Smith, an All-Conference cornerback, broke his big toe in the Big 12 Championship game and missed the bowl game. His backup, Lendy Holmes, was ruled academically ineligible and also missed the bowl game. Sophomore defensive tacke DeMarcus Granger was sent home after being arrested on the suspicion of shoplifting from a local mall. On the day of the game, it was reported that wide receiver Malcolm Kelly was questionable due to a deep thigh bruise. Because of the losses in the secondary, West Virginia stated they would consider passing more to take advantage of the less experienced players filling those positions.

Each team received an allotment of 17,500 tickets. West Virginia was unable to sell about 7,500 of those tickets and returned them to the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma had also not sold out its entire allotment. West Virginia blamed the lack of ticket sales on the distance from West Virginia to Arizona and that many Mountaineers fans purchased nonrefundable travel packages to New Orleans in expectations of playing for the national championship before the loss to Pittsburgh. West Virginia's returned tickets will go to local charities.

On the day of the game, most betting houses had the Oklahoma Sooners as a 7–8 point favorite.