At this time last season, OU was preparing to take on No. 1 Missouri in the Big 12 Championship with the possibility of ruining a national title. This year, the teams are the same, but the roles are reversed.

Saturday will mark the first time the same two teams have met in the Big 12 Championship for two consecutive years.

The Sooners enter the rematch ranked No. 2, and a win virtually guarantees OU a spot in the National Championship against the SEC champion.

Last year’s game was played in San Antonio, while this year’s will be played in Kansas City, where there figures to be a Missouri home-field advantage.

While this year’s match-up isn’t a high-profile clash between two top-10 teams, head coach Bob Stoops is well aware that Missouri is still a threat.

“We have tremendous respect for Coach Pinkel and his staff and what they’ve done in the last several years,” Stoops said.

Stoops said Missouri returns much of last year’s talent on defense and that the team OU defeated twice last year should be a tough challenge.

“Defensively, they have a veteran team back, a bunch of guys from a year ago, so once again it’ll be a big challenge,” Stoops said.

Senior Missouri signal caller Chase Daniel has played OU three times in his career, but has yet to win. This game will be Daniel’s last chance to give his team a win over the Sooners before he graduates.

“They have a bunch of great players,” Stoops said. “Chase Daniel their quarterback is an outstanding player. He’s so efficient running their offense, and he’s so quick with everything he does, getting the ball out, and then he can roll out and move around. He also has a lot of targets.”

Daniel’s statistics for the season impressive, and they have been consistent from last year as well. He has passed for 3,880 yards, 37 touchdowns and 13 interceptions in 2008 and he passed for 4306 yards, 33 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 2007.

In his three games against Oklahoma, Daniel has completed 63.8 percent of his passes for 870 yards, three touchdowns and five interceptions.

“It’s a tough offense that we’re going against, and you just have to stay balanced and in position,” sophomore defensive end Jeremy Beal said. “Daniel makes plays when there is nothing there. It just creates more problems for [the defensive line].”

Daniel, however, is not the only offensive threat the Sooners must face. Missouri’s sophomore wide receiver Jeremy Maclin has torched defenses all year with his blazing speed. Maclin has caught 88 passes for 1,175 yards — both more than any player on OU’s roster — and 11 touchdowns, but has yet to score a touchdown against OU.

“They use their screen and run game to set up the pass,” freshman linebacker Travis Lewis said. “I think you have to stop the run game first, and we intend to do that.”

Daniel’s other favorite receiver is tight end Chase Coffman, who is second on Missouri’s roster with 79 catches for 872 yards and nine touchdowns.

“Maclin, their receiver, and Coffman their tight end are great players,” Stoops said.

Oklahoma leads the all-time series over Missouri 65-23-5 in the 93 times the two schools have met. Missouri’s last win came in the first year of the Big 12 Conference, in 1998, when Missouri beat Oklahoma 20-6 in Columbia.

Last year the two teams met in San Antonio and OU came out victorious with a 38-17 drubbing of the Tigers. The win propelled OU to the Fiesta Bowl, while Missouri went on to play in the Cotton Bowl.