CHARLOTTE - It's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" vs. "Rocky Top" when 17^th-ranked West Virginia and Tennessee meet for the very first time today in Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
It took the Charlotte Sports Foundation and a nice little financial guarantee for both schools to get done what hasn't been done since the late 1890s when West Virginia and Tennessee first began playing football – play each other.
 
"This game … the anticipation of this has been lingering for some time," West Virginia coach Dana Holgorsen said earlier this week. "I'd put it around five years."
 
For West Virginia, Tennessee can now be crossed off the list of Power 5 programs it has never faced on the gridiron, leaving just Iowa, Minnesota, Northwestern, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, UCLA and Arkansas.
 
For Tennessee, the list of Power 5 schools it hasn't played is pared to six: Illinois, Michigan State, Arizona, Arizona State, Stanford and Washington.
 
It's a little ironic, considering West Virginia and Tennessee are located less than 450 miles away from each other and have periodically interacted on the recruiting trails.
 
"Some," Holgorsen said of the recruiting interactions he's had with Tennessee during his time at West Virginia through the years. "I think we looked at their roster and there were about 10 that we actively recruited – about the same as Virginia Tech last year, for whatever reason that is."
 
Today, Tennessee is beginning a new era of football with Jeremy Pruitt becoming the latest coach to put on the bright orange sport coat. His two immediate predecessors failed to finish their final respective seasons as Brady Hoke took over for Butch Jones last year, and Jim Chaney wound up Derek Dooley's tenure in 2012.
 
Throw in Lane Kiffin's 7-6 record in 2009 and it's been 10 long years since Phil Fulmer's final season coaching the Volunteers in 2008. For those of you counting, that's 53 wins and 50 losses during that span of time, which doesn't quite match the 38 former Tennessee players currently still in NFL training camps this week.
 
"Obviously, they're a storied program that has won a national championship and SEC championships. We understand it's a historic program, and I have a lot of respect for Phil Fulmer, and I know he's back in the mix of things there as their athletic director," Holgorsen said. "And I've followed Jeremy Pruitt's coaching career for quite some time. He has worked himself up the ranks and I admire that."
 
West Virginia, too, is looking forward to perhaps Holgorsen's deepest and most talented football team in his eight seasons in Morgantown. His first squad in 2011 won 10 games and routed Clemson in the 2012 Discover Orange Bowl to finish ranked in the Top 25, and his sixth team in 2016 won 10 regular season games, finished tied for second in the Big 12 standings, and also ended the year ranked in the Top 25.
 
Mixed in are three 7-6 seasons, an 8-5 campaign in 2015 and a 4-8 record in 2013.
 
Mountaineer fans are hopeful this Holgorsen team, with the school's first legitimate Heisman Trophy candidate since Major Harris in 1989, quarterback Will Grier, can lead West Virginia back near the top of the national polls and perhaps even challenge for a Big 12 championship and a berth in the College Football Playoff.
 
The expectations in the Mountain State are that high this year. 
 
And it all begins this afternoon. 
 
Be sure to follow along starting at noon with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show on Mountaineer Sports Network from IMG affiliates across the state and online via the TuneIn app and WVUsports.com. 
 
The first hour with hosts Dan Zangrilli, Dale Wolfley and Jed Drenning will be commercial-free leading into our regular game coverage at 2:30 p.m. with veteran play-by-play man Tony Caridi, who is beginning his 34th season on the network with the Mountaineers, and his 20th working with color analyst Dwight Wallace.
 
Here is today's Countdown to Kickoff:
 
10 – Today's game will be West Virginia's TENTH appearance under coach Dana Holgorsen in a stadium that also houses a profession football team. WVU is 5-4 in those venues under Holgorsen.
 
9 – After just one season playing for the Mountaineers, quarterback Will Grier is already ranked NINTH in school history in career touchdown passes with 34.
 
8 – Holgorsen has lost only EIGHT of his 29 non-conference games at West Virginia. He is 4-6 in neutral-site non-conference games and 2-1 in true road non-conference matchups.
 
7 – Evan Staley successfully converted six of his SEVEN field goal attempts last year after serving as the team's primary kicker for the final six games of the 2017 season.
 
6 – West Virginia has scored SIX defensive touchdowns since 2015, including three last year. Sophomore safety Kenny Robinson Jr. made two of those three touchdowns.
 
5 – Holgorsen has won FIVE out of his seven season openers at West Virginia.
 
4 – The Belk Kickoff Game will be West Virginia's FOURTH appearance in Charlotte and its first since defeating North Carolina, 31-30, in the 2008 Meineke Car Care Bowl.
 
3 – Today's game will be the THIRD time under Holgorsen that West Virginia is starting the regular season at a neutral-site venue. WVU kicked off the 2014 season in Atlanta against Alabama in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game and last year the Mountaineers faced Virginia Tech in Landover, Maryland.
 
2 – TWO times last year West Virginia scored 28 points in a quarter - against Kansas (second) and East Carolina (second). The Mountaineers scored 21 points or more in a quarter nine times in 2017.
 
1 – Senior wide receiver David Sills V tied for FIRST nationally in touchdown catches last year with 18.
 
Enjoy today's game and be sure to stop back afterward for complete postgame coverage.