MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – For reasons still not fully understood, Texas has sort of become a red-letter game in the eyes of West Virginia football fans.
 
It's the one team coach Neal Brown has probably heard about the most from the fans that he's interacted with during the offseason since taking the Mountaineer job last January.
 
"I've played Texas before (when he was Texas Tech offensive coordinator), but I haven't been here and played Texas," Brown said earlier this week. "I do get the feeling (it's a big game in the eyes of WVU fans), but I'm not sure why because I haven't been here. 
 
"It's a game our fans are excited about and it's one they talk about in the offseason as well."
 
But why Texas more than Oklahoma, another blue blood that has made the College Football Playoffs three out of the last four years?
 
Perhaps it's because West Virginia has had some success against the Longhorns, winning four of the seven meetings against them since joining the Big 12 compared to the zero success it's had against the Sooners.
 
That's sort of how it was 30 years ago when Pitt and Penn State were the two big teams on West Virginia's football schedule. The Mountaineers enjoyed success against the Panthers but had virtually none against the Nittany Lions.
 
More recently, West Virginia fans typically had Virginia Tech on their minds more so than Miami when the two were ruling the Big East. Again, that's because West Virginia held its own for the most part against the Hokies, but had great difficulty keeping up with the Hurricanes.
 
Last year's game against Texas in Austin was certainly the high point in an otherwise underachieving season for West Virginia football. Will Grier's 33-yard touchdown pass to Gary Jennings Jr. with 16 seconds remaining and then Grier's two-point conversion run gave the Mountaineers an unlikely come-from-behind victory over the Longhorns.
 
The manner in which Dana Holgorsen's team celebrated that victory was pleasing to many WVU fans, but it also drew the ire of some of the Texas players, one of them being quarterback Sam Ehlinger. 
 
Despite West Virginia's late-season swoon that saw it once again go winless against the state of Oklahoma, that Texas victory has stuck in the minds of West Virginia fans for whatever reason.
 
It was certainly Will Grier's One Shining Moment as a West Virginia football player.
 
And that game has likely remained in the minds of Texas fans, too, even though the Longhorns recovered from it to reach the Big 12 championship game and then upset Georgia 28-21 in last year's Sugar Bowl.
 
Whatever the reasons may be, West Virginia fans have begun to draw a big red circle around Texas on their pocket Mountaineer football schedules.
 
This year's game was announced a sellout weeks in advance unlike the prior three times Texas played here in 2013, 2015 and 2017.
 
None of those games reached Milan Puskar Stadium's capacity, the closest coming in 2013 when 58,570 showed up in early November to see the Mountaineers fall 47-40 in overtime to Mack Brown's Longhorns.
 
Only 53,133 were on hand two years ago to observe the two-touchdown loss to the Longhorns in 2017. That was Tom Herman's first trip to Morgantown and it left an impression on him, even though he didn't quite get the full dose of Mountaineer Nation that November afternoon.  
 
That usually happens when the weather is much warmer in Morgantown, as it will be on Saturday afternoon.
 
"That venue is a very difficult venue to play in," Herman said earlier this week. "We were there two years ago. The field is 100 yards long and 53 1/3 yards wide and when the ball is kicked off where you are playing the game is irrelevant if we choose to make it that way. To allow an opposing crowd to affect your play, that's a choice that you make and hopefully our guys are the opposite of that."
 
It's doubtful a loud and vocal crowd will have much of an effect on Ehlinger, who performed well here as a freshman.
 
Ehlinger has been in other hostile venues as well.
 
"It isn't like this is his first rodeo," West Virginia defensive coordinator Vic Koenning admitted. "I don't think it's going to bother him. They are going to the Red River Rivalry deal next weekend so he's been through that. You don't get much louder than that, no offense to our crowd."
 
But where a supportive and vocal crowd can have an impact is on Brown's young football team still trying to develop its identity.
 
A raucous Milan Puskar Stadium, particularly an enthusiastic and engaged student section that chooses to remain in their seats after halftime, could be a big help to Koenning's young defense that has to figure out a way to slow down Ehlinger, who is averaging 357 yards per game and has accounted for 16 of Texas' 21 touchdowns so far this year.
 
"What I think (a loud stadium) will do is for our guys," Koenning explained. "If we play with a high motor and play has hard as we can and we legally try to hit everything that moves … and we try and keep balls in front of us and not give up big plays and play our style of defense that's the best we can do. If we do the best we can do we'll all be happy and we'll be fine.
 
"Here's the deal," Koenning added, "the best we can do is better than what we've shown. I truly believe our guys have not come close to doing the best that we can do."
 
Neal Brown is certainly hopeful of seeing first-hand that great Milan Puskar Stadium atmosphere he's heard so much about since leaving Troy.
 
He didn't really observe it in the opener against James Madison, and he only caught glimpses of it against NC State.
 
Brown said his young football team can really feed off the energy a large, loud and vocal crowd can provide this weekend.
 
"It's going to be a great atmosphere, Stripe the Stadium, and I'm looking forward to seeing that. We're going to need our crowd and we're going to need our students," he said. "I hope they show up in big numbers, and I hope they stay because we're going to need them.
 
"This home-field atmosphere and the home-field advantage needs to be big," Brown continued. "I think that's important for us this weekend."
 
A 3:30 p.m. kickoff has been established for Saturday's game, giving Mountaineer fans from Weirton to Welch, Martinsburg to Matewan and all points in between plenty of time to get to Morgantown.
 
It also gives those WVU students plenty of time to sleep in before they make their way into the stadium. It's going to take every single player on West Virginia's roster, every student, and everyone wearing the Gold and Blue in Morgantown on Saturday to knock off the 11^th-ranked Longhorns, rated double-digit favorites as of Wednesday afternoon.
 
For those who can't make it to Morgantown, ABC (Steve Levy, Brian Griese, Todd McShay and Molly McGrath) will have live national television coverage. 
 
The Mountaineer Sports Network will kick things off at noon with the GoMart Mountaineer Tailgate Show leading into regular network coverage at 2:30 p.m. on affiliates throughout the Mountain State.
 
Prior to Saturday's game, the 1969 Peach Bowl championship team will celebrate its 50^th anniversary as part of Varsity Club Weekend on the WVU campus. Team members and coaches, including Hall of Fame coach Bobby Bowden, will also be recognized in the south end zone during a timeout in the first quarter.
 
On Friday the Signal Caller, Jed Drenning, will have a more detailed game preview with key matchups and an extensive film-room breakdown of the Longhorns.