SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Mr. January was stopped cold, for once. The nickname smacked him straight in the grill. His concentration, akin to those 10 facemasks throughout his near-legendary, rumbling-to-a-close West Virginia football career, was shattered.

"I'm Mr. January?" Owen Schmitt wondered aloud.

Yep. For those career-best games in the past two bowls: 82 yards in the Sugar, 109 yards in the Gator. On the first day or two of the new year and the final day of his college season, Schmitt rolls downhill, all right. That seemingly bodes well for tomorrow night, when this brutish fullback-tight end and the 11th-ranked Mountaineers collide with third-ranked Oklahoma in the 2008 Fiesta Bowl.

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Fiesta bowl

• Game: West Virginia (10-2) vs. Oklahoma (11-2).
• When: 8 p.m. Wednesday.
• Where: University of Phoenix Stadium, Glendale, Ariz.
• TV: WPGH.

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"I think it's because I know it's the last game of the season," Schmitt tried to explain this week in an interview before practice. "I want to leave a good impression, I guess."

To say nothing of the fact that his big-bowl performances appear to result from increased rushing duties: He carried the ball nine times in the Jan. 2, 2006, Sugar and 13 in the Jan. 1, 2007, Gator, both career bests.

"Yeah, funny, huh?" Schmitt said. In other words, his bowl bashing isn't by coincidence.

Steve Slaton isn't the only beloved Mountaineers running back with dwindling numbers this season.

OK, so Schmitt started with much more modest stats, anyway. He has a career-low 208 yards entering the suburban-Glendale spaceship known as University of Phoenix Stadium tomorrow night, and he started last January's Gator with 242 -- then promptly gained almost 50 percent more in a single day.

After moving to tight end this season, he also has the same amount of catches as a fullback last season: 12. So touches remain rare for him, even though he never once in his 157 Mountaineer carries was stopped for as little as zero yards, let alone lost yardage.

Like Slaton, Schmitt doesn't publicly complain. Unlike Slaton, Schmitt -- a captain who appears on WVU's bowl media-guide cover -- is certain that tomorrow marks his final moment as a Mountaineer.

For a 6-foot-3, 260-pound, Mohawk-wearing fellow who has overcome so many obstacles -- cleft palate, broken home that caused him to be raised by grandparents in Wisconsin, false college start at Division III Wisconsin-River Falls, walk-on transfer situation where he hoped West Virginia or James Madison or somebody close to his new Fairfax, Va., home would welcome him -- a rugged Sooners defense and another underdog bowl night are all that remain.

The big guy is growing nostalgic, too. In his own, inimitable way, of course.

He graduated with a degree in athletic coaching education Dec. 16 the same day coach Rich Rodriguez told his players that he was leaving for Michigan. After tomorrow, Schmitt will play in the Jan. 26 Senior Bowl, train in Florida and return to West Virginia primarily for pro-day scouting in the spring.

"Man, it stinks," Schmitt said of the impending end to his college career. "It's depressing. Once a Mountaineer, always a Mountaineer. It's just sad that I'll never be able to play there again, at Mountaineer Field, at home. It's not so much who you play or where, it's home.

"I'm being totally serious: When I first came here, I had no expectation. I didn't even have dreams of what I could accomplish. The opportunity I've gotten, I'm thankful for that. I'm glad I went to WVU."

The hard-charging player kept one of the facemasks he busted, though another bestowed upon Rodriguez came up missing while the new Michigan coach cleaned out his West Virginia office.

Mountaineers followers won't lose their Schmitt memories, though: the crucial, 54-yard run on a third-and-1 against Georgia in that Sugar Bowl; the two touchdowns and capable fill-in role in the Gator on a day when a deep thigh bruise rendered Slaton ineffective; the three times in succession that he banged his helmet against his bare forehead after a dreadful, quick-kick, 9-yard punt against Louisville.

Perhaps he'll add to his legacy now that it's January, now that it's his month. Only one other time in his career has he rumbled for as many as 80 yards, when he exacted some D.C.-area vengeance on Maryland, which spurned him and Slaton. That was in a Sept. 17, 2005, game in College Park, Md. That isn't as special a date or stage as tomorrow.

"Owen's a throwback," Mountaineers interim head coach Bill Stewart said, invoking such names as Alan Ameche and Bronko Nagurski. "Guys who break facemasks. Guys who bust helmets. Boy, he's tough."

"No. 35," marveled Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables, "I think a lot of their temperament and toughness goes through him. He's kind of their leader from that standpoint."

Kind of their legend.