No. 5 Oklahoma (7-0, 4-0 in the Big 12), behind the leadership of Heisman candidate Jalen Hurts, steamrolled West Virginia, 52-14, Saturday.

The Sooners at tied atop the conference with Baylor (7-0, 4-0). OU and Baylor play in Waco on November 16.

For the fifth game in a row, OU will kick off at 11 a.m. on Saturday. The Sooners travel to Manhattan, Kansas,  to face Kansas State (4-2, 1-2). The Wildcats won a tight game against TCU, 24-17, last Saturday.

OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione tweeted an apology of sorts for the rash of early kickoff times. “Although it’s not always readily apparent, we vigorously push for other times, like we did for our opener,” Castiglione tweeted. “Obviously, the national TV exposure is important but we also fully understand the impact on you.”

Oklahoma has the leading offense in the nation, averaging 612 yards per game (339 yards passing, 273 yards rushing). OU is also No. 1 in scoring, averaging 50.4 points per game.

Meanwhile, Kansas State has the No. 9 offense in the Big 12, averaging 369 yards and 26.4 points per game under first-year head coach Chris Klieman.

Against West Virginia, Hurts had a career-high passing efficiency rating of 308.6 – the highest rating for any quarterback in the nation this year. Hurts has had a rating of at least 245.0 five times this year. No FBS player since 1996 has had more than three games in one season. (Former OU quarterback Baker Mayfield had three in 2017 – no one else had more than two). The OU record is 348.0 set by former OU quarterback Kyler Murray last season.

“We don’t know what the ceiling is, no one knows,” Hurts said. “How we get to it, our peak, is going out there every day and practicing hard. I’ll say it again, having the right intent and approach to what we do, being eager, essentially starving for an opportunity to play. We just got to have that factor about us, we have to be hungry for every opportunity that we have and go out there and take advantage of our opportunities.”

Against the Mountaineers, Hurts hit 16 of 17 passes (the one miss was a dropped pass by Drake Stoops). He had three passing touchdowns and two rushing touchdowns plus 391 yards of total offense. He ran 10 times for 75 yards.

“He saw things well the majority of the game,” said OU coach Lincoln Riley. “He had a good understanding of how we wanted to attack them. Made some really nice play decisions in scrabble situations. He had a couple of jaw dropping type throws. Certainly the one to (Lee) Morris was pretty awesome. I thought he was in control the majority of the day. He had a good week and it carried over.”

“His ability to ad lib and to move in the pocket, I thought he was really accurate on the move today,” West Virginia coach Neal Brown said. “That makes it really tough to defend. I think he’s special, I do. There’s a reason. Look at his high school record, it’s pretty strong. You look at his record at Alabama, you look at his win percentage and then he’s yet to lose here. The kid’s a winner. He’s a big-time player.”

Hurts leads the nation in average yardage per pass completion. Anthony Gordon of Washington State leads the nation in total passing yardage (2,981) while Hurts is at 2,074. However, Gordon has attempted 347 passes and completed 246 while Hurts has only 154 attempts with 115 completions.

Among the nation’s quarterbacks, only Malcolm Perry of Navy, who operates in a wishbone-style offense, has more yards rushing (792) than Hurts (705). Hurts is fifth in the nation – behind four running backs – in average gain per rushing carry (8.4 yards). By the way, OU running back Kennedy Brooks is No. 2 in the nation (8.5 yards per carry) and Trey Sermon is 12th (7.2 yards per carry).

West Virginia quarterback Austin Kendall is a graduate transfer from Oklahoma who has two years of eligibility left with the Mountaineers. It was his first game back at Norman.

“It was pretty cool to come in and be able to see the road I used to take to my house and just good to see everybody I haven’t seen in a couple of months,” Kendall said. “It was a cool experience … It was pretty cool to see everybody. I’ve got a lot of love for basically all that team and a lot of those guys I’ve played. Nothing changes there. Jokingly, Kenneth Murry was in my ear all game and it was pretty funny. I was honestly out there joking with some of the guys out there after plays. It was a good experience.”

The OU defense has allowed 20 or fewer points five times this season. Six times the Sooner defense has prevented opponents from scoring in the first quarter. OU blocked a West Virginia punt and scored a touchdown.

Oklahoma is 23rd in the nation in points allowed (136 total, 10.4 points per game). OU’s defense is surrendering only 326 yards per game.

“Three straight games without a takeaway, which is alarming,” said OU defensive coordinator Alex Grinch. “It’s something we’ve got to come up with a better plan as a defense. Haven’t been here before, gotta be honest. Haven’t been here before. Three straight games without a takeaway, as much as we emphasize it. The ball’s in the air more than we act like it is from a secondary standpoint. We need to make sure we want that ball being thrown our way, so that’s something we’ve got to analyze as a coaching staff.”