This weekend, OU hits the road to take on the Missouri Tigers in Columbia, Mo., for what is perhaps the biggest game of the Sooners’ season so far.

The matchup comes a week after the BCS polls ranked the Sooners No. 1 in the country. The Tigers had a notable showing as well, coming in at No. 11.

But this game in Columbia is much more than a chance for Mizzou to improve its BCS ranking or for OU to prove to the nation that it deserves the first-place ranking; there’s some bad blood involved between these two teams, sophomore center Ben Habern said.

“Some of the coaches have told us that [the Tigers] really want to play us and they have us circled; that they remember what we did to them in ’08,” Habern said. “I know that we’re preparing hard, that they’re preparing hard. We know it’s a national stage basically, so it’s going to be a great game. We’re ready to go.”

In the 2007 season, the Sooners not only defeated the Tigers 41-31 in Norman for OU’s homecoming, but also in the Big 12 Championship game 38-17. The teams met again in the following season’s Big 12 Championship, and OU blew out Missouri 62-21.

This season, the teams head in to a series that has been one-sided over the course of recent history with OU winning 19 of the last 20 and remaining a perfect 6-0 under Bob Stoops.

Just as in the past several years, Missouri comes into the game featuring its trademark high-powered offense.

“We’ve just watched a little bit of tape these last few days, and they are as advertised — a really explosive offense,” junior linebacker Austin Box said. “If you’re not clean and if you’re not playing responsibility football, they are going to expose you. That’s what they’ve been doing against teams all year.”

Former Tigers Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin made a national name for the Missouri offense in their day, but now both are gone. However, Blaine Gabbert has led an effective offense all season and should be feared just as Daniel was, defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

“He’s bigger; he’s every bit as strong as regards to arm strength; he’s quick; he’s athletic; he just stands tall in the pocket, so he has about five or six inches on Chase,” Venables said.

Even though Missouri lost its offensive coordinator from several years ago, former quarterbacks coach David Yost has taken over the job and kept up the potent offensive tradition of Mizzou.

“They’re doing a lot of the same things,” Venables said. “They spread the field and force you to defend sideline to sideline. They do a good job of managing the game as well from the sideline with their coaches. It’s no-huddle; they’ll up-tempo you, then they have a bunch of exotics ... that force you to make some very quick decisions and some adjustments on the field or you get out-leveraged or turn a guy loose.”

Missouri also features a host of skill players who all make significant contributions to their offense. Sophomore wide receiver T.J. Moe and junior tight end Michael Egnew have 50 and 49 receptions a piece this season and three touchdowns each. They are Gabbert’s favorite targets and provide him with deep and over-the-middle targets.

Additionally, the Tigers have a running back committee of five tailbacks who have all received double-digit carries this year and all average over five yards per carry.

“They have really good skill players,” senior defensive back Jonathan Nelson said. “They’re just more balanced than you would really think. They have a really good running game, and they just sort of put you on your heels. I just really have seen the defenses on their heels against Missouri, sort of panicking.”

Nelson said he believes Mizzou’s offense can hang with any of the offenses in the nation.

Bottom line — the Sooners have one of their most important and challenging games of the season on the road Saturday with ESPN College GameDay and thousands of fans watching.

For Nelson and the secondary, this just gives them an opportunity to prove themselves.

“This is going to be a really big challenge for the secondary,” Nelson said. “If we can stop those guys, we’re going to feel really good about ourselves. If we can just contain them defensively, we are going to have to handle our assignments every single play and not take a play off.”