Radio sideline reporter Jed Drenning provides periodic commentary on the Mountaineer football program for WVUsports.com. Be sure to follow him on Twitter @TheSignalCaller.
 
The drive from Des Moines to Ames is an unremarkable one.
 
That's the trip the Mountaineers first made in 2012, and have made every two years since, from the West Virginia team headquarters in West Des Moines to the Iowa State campus.  
 
It's nearly a straight shot up Interstate 35 by car or by bus and, at different times, I've taken each. As you watch the Otter Creek Golf Course west of the interstate gradually give way to acres of nothingness, you know the journey is under way . . . 30-something miles of freshly harvested cornfields and cropland.
 
In point of fact, to call what you see on the drive "nothing" is a little misleading. A feed and grain broker might catch your eye somewhere along the way, but it probably won't. There's a truck stop or two on your right and maybe an old Lutheran church to your left.  You'll see a heavy equipment superstore then a Ditch Witch dealer. You'll see farmsteads standing in the shadow of tower silos and a John Deere combine harvester on a tract of land that seems to stretch to the end of the world.
 
Welcome to central Iowa, the epicenter of the American Corn Belt.
 
And you're about to enter Cyclones Country.
 
As I-35 crosses over the South Skunk River, the colors of Iowa State begin to surface . . . scattered like buckshot in various signs along the road and in the flags affixed to the vehicles that form the surrounding traffic. If you blow by the Ames exit and continue north another 80 minutes you'll enter Clear Lake, Iowa, infamous as the site where the music died in the winter of 1958 when the chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson crashed into a frozen field outside of town, killing all three passengers and the pilot.
 
But we don't continue north. Instead, we exit the interstate. As we now head west on Highway 30, the volume of Iowa State signage intensifies. It was somewhere on that stretch of road six years ago that we encountered our first hint of Cyclone fanaticism when a hearse of the end loader variety slowly passed us on the right. 
 
This wasn't your ordinary funeral coach. With twin sirens mounted over the front windshield, it was painted bumper to bumper in the loud cardinal and gold of ISU. The vehicle's handiwork included the school logo sprawled across the hood and a detailed mascot featured along the side. The facelift on the hearse was an eye-grabbing blend of school spirit and the macabre – almost as if Bill Murray had dropped the Ghostbusters iconic Ecto-1 off at a body shop owned by Cy the Cardinal.
 
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, let's bring on the Cyclones.
 
Before you have had enough time to really appreciate what you had seen, however, you are off the highway and traversing campus, approaching Jack Trice Stadium – a nifty tribute to Iowa State lore in its own right. It's the only FBS facility bearing an African American's name. Trice was the first African American football player in Iowa State history, and the first ISU athlete to die from injuries sustained in competition. This week marked the 95th anniversary of Trice's death, which came when he succumbed to injuries suffered two days earlier against Minnesota.
 
With a capacity of 61,500, Jack Trice Stadium is the third largest in the Big 12 – and it's also the facility that Mountaineer Field itself was modeled after. It's not until you get inside, however, that you see the similarities. 
 
Double-decked grandstands span the length of both sidelines and wrap around the south end zone, but it's the hillside seats near the corners of the stadium's north end that are most reminiscent of the early days of Mountaineer Field. It's past those seats on the grass that West Virginia makes its way from the visitors' locker room down to the field, a short trip that can get interesting with hundreds of ISU fans no more than the length of a healthy cornstalk away. Internet descriptions point out that the field level itself is a little lower than the surrounding ground, but take it from someone who has spent more than 10 hours of his life standing on it, the difference doesn't feel like an appreciable one. 

As a college football fan growing up in West Virginia, I'll be the first to admit the Iowa State Cyclones rarely surfaced on my radar. Sitting in my living room nearly a thousand miles away, ISU football was one of the sports afterthoughts of my childhood, probably registering somewhere between former Purdue quarterback Mark Hermann and the San Jose State basketball program. I had nothing against either, I just didn't perk up when they were mentioned. 
 
As such, the game day environment at Jack Trice Stadium was easily one of the things that surprised me most when West Virginia transitioned into the Big 12 and began traveling the circuit. The prestige of the Palace on the Prairie in Norman? The pageantry and trappings in Austin? The history of T. Boone Pickens Stadium and the flying tortillas in Lubbock? I anticipated all that and braced for each accordingly, but I didn't see Ames, Iowa coming. 
 
At its best, "The Jack" is an energized venue packed full of blue-collar, farming families and impassioned students who love the only show in town: the hard-nosed team representing their land-grant university. In other words, the similarities Jack Trice Stadium shares with Mountaineer Field aren't just the structural ones lifted from an engineer's blueprint. They extend to the people as well.  
 
It was into that dangerous cauldron under the lights that West Virginia marched for the first time on Black Friday 2012. The wind chill at kickoff was 21 degrees. A jet motion, touch pass that sent Tavon Austin streaking into the frigid night and a goal-to-go forced fumble by the Mountaineer defense in the final minutes bailed West Virginia out of a tough spot in a 31-24 victory. 
 
But they're all tough in Ames. Even the ones that don't look like it. 
 
Two years ago at Jack Trice Stadium, the Mountaineers found themselves in a 21-16 alley fight in the third quarter. Then a 71-yard Skyler Howard to Shelton Gibson scoring strike, followed by the WVU defense forcing three straight ISU turnovers, blew the game open in what turned out to be a 49-19 win for Dana Holgorsen's squad. In 2014, the Mountaineers trailed 21-7 before waking up to claw their way back as Tony Gibson's defense held the homestanding Cyclones to just one field goal on their final 11 possessions in a 37-24 victory. 
 
Expect no less of a challenge this time around as No. 6 West Virginia returns Saturday night to the same Iowa State proving ground that, since opening its gates in 1975, has claimed seven top-10 victims – including No. 4 TCU just 50 weeks ago.

Matt Campbell's Cyclones enter this weekend with a 2-3 record, but not all two-win teams teeing it up in October are created equally. 
 
Indulge me as I lay this out. 
 
A two-win team, led by a third-year coach, hosting an unbeaten, top-10 opponent under the lights in October. A team that's had enough shining moments against top-tier competition to believe that not only are they far better than their record suggests, but also that they're on the verge of a breakthrough moment. 
 
Which team might I be talking about?
 
The 2-3 Iowa State Cyclones, who are poised to square off against No. 6 WVU on Saturday or the 2-4 Mountaineers in October of 2003 who were preparing to host No. 3 Virginia Tech on a Wednesday night in Morgantown? 
 
The similarities between the two are as scary as you let them be. The more you consider it, the more it starts to sound like those odd parallels comparing Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy that have floated around online since the day the internet was invented: Lincoln's secretary was named Kennedy. Kennedy's secretary was named Lincoln. Both Presidents were shot on Friday. Both successors were named Johnson. On and on.
 
As the adage goes: "Those who don't learn history are doomed to repeat it."We don't want that to happen Saturday night, so pay close attention. On the bright side, you won't find a mention of John Wilkes Boothe in this 2018 ISU/2003 WVU comparison. 
 
2018 CYCLONES (2-3) VS. NO. 6 WEST VIRGINIA (5-0): 

1. In his first year at Iowa State (2016), Matt Campbell won just three games. 
2. In his second year (2017), Campbell's squad broke through with eight wins – including upsets in conference play over ranked Oklahoma and TCU teams.
3. In year three under Campbell (2018), the Cyclones have been slow out of the gate, carrying a two-win record into mid-October. 
4. Iowa State showed promise in a loss to a ranked Oklahoma team and a win over a ranked Oklahoma State team. Both performances have given the Cyclones a shot of confidence and filled the ISU locker room with a belief that, despite their 2-3 record, big things are about to happen.
5. Heading into Ames on Oct. 13, 2018, the unbeaten Mountaineers are the only FBS team in the country not to trail in a game yet this season.

 
2003 MOUNTAINEERS (2-4) VS NO. 3 VIRGINIA TECH (6-0): 

1. In his first year at West Virginia (2001), Rich Rodriguez won just three games. 
2. In his second year (2002), Rodriguez' squad broke through with nine wins – including upsets in conference play over ranked Virginia Tech and Pitt teams.
3. In year three under Rodriguez (2003), the Mountaineers were slow out of the gate, carrying a two-win record into mid-October.
4. West Virginia showed promise in a tight opening day loss to a ranked Wisconsin team but more specifically by going toe to toe as a heavy underdog against No.2 ranked Miami before dropping a heartbreaker. Trading blows to the bitter end with the Hurricanes gave the Mountaineers a shot of confidence and filled the WVU locker room with a belief that, despite their 2-4 record, big things were about to happen. 
5. Heading into Morgantown on Oct. 22, 2003, the unbeaten Hokies had trailed just once during their 6-0 start, a 7-0 deficit at Rutgers that they quickly erased en route to a 48-22 win.

 
We all know how things unfolded for West Virginia. Under the glow of an electrifying environment at Mountaineer Field that ended in a haze of pepper spray and postgame pandemonium, WVU toppled unbeaten Virginia Tech 28-7 as part of a seven-game winning streak to close the 2003 regular season. Campbell's Cyclones hope to chart a similar course. To navigate such a path, however, they first need to do something they've never done – beat West Virginia in Ames. 
 
Will Grier and the Mountaineer offense are averaging 41 points per game – but to date the Cyclones have held all five of their opponents under their season scoring averages. In part perhaps because they are one of only four FBS teams to not start a senior anywhere on the offensive line this year – and in part owing to the bumps and bruises that have plagued All-Big 12 RB David Montgomery -- Iowa State averages just 3.2 yards per rush. That's last in the Big 12 and 121st nationally. That's not the kind of offensive balance Campbell is hoping for to help protect his young quarterback against the exotic looks that WVU's odd-stack wilderness of mirrors can feature. 
 
True freshman signal caller Brock Purdy – a coveted recruit who chose ISU over the likes of Alabama and Texas A&M -- gave the Iowa State offense the spark it needed when he stepped in last week in Stillwater. In his first significant college action, Purdy was exceptional -- connecting on 78 percent of his throws for better than 300 yards and four scores while adding 84 yards and another TD with his legs. His big run came when he kept the ball and found a seam for a 29-yard burst in the second quarter. Purdy is wiser than he should be and athletic enough to cause problems. Tony Gibson has enjoyed a 7-2 record against freshman QBs as West Virginia's defensive coordinator (including a 5-1 mark against true freshmen). If Purdy is in fact behind center for the Cyclones (and not senior Kyle Kempt, who has been on the mend for more than a month since suffering an injury in the season opener against Iowa), how the West Virginia defense attacks him could go a long way in deciding the outcome of this football game. 
 
During the Campbell era, the Cyclones offense has managed just one touchdown in 23 possessions against Tony Gibson's Dawgs. Can Purdy help the Clones buck that trend or will Gibby have another trick up his sleeve?
 
Iowa State will show up Saturday night with 60,000 rowdy friends hoping for an unexpected outcome similar to the one WVU pulled off 15 years ago against the Hokies. West Virginia, meanwhile, with each additional victory inches closer to a season of historical significance. That only happens one small step at a time. 
 
Saturday night at Jack Trice Stadium, the Mountaineers don't need to make history. They just need to dodge it.  
 
I'll see you at the 50.