MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – There is a rumor going around that West Virginia is playing Texas this Saturday in Morgantown.
 
Of course, the 11^th-ranked Texas Longhorns are coming to town this weekend to make their fourth-ever appearance at Milan Puskar Stadium.
 
And just like Penn State years ago when the Mountaineers and Nittany Lions were Eastern Independents or during the Big East days when Miami was ruling the league, Texas is becoming a big draw for Mountaineer fans.
 
Saturday's game has been sold-out for weeks and a crowd exceeding 60,000 should give Neal Brown's youthful Mountaineers a big boost.
 
Longhorn coach Tom Herman was asked earlier today about taking his team into their first hostile environment this year (Texas defeated Rice 48-13 before 42,417 fans in Houston two weeks ago).
 
"That venue is a very difficult venue to play in," he said of 60,000-seat Milan Puskar Stadium. "We were there two years ago.
 
"Where you're playing the game is irrelevant if we choose to make it that way," he added. "To allow an opposing crowd to affect your play, that's a choice that you make and hopefully most of our guys are the opposite of that."
 
One guy who won't be affected by the partisan crowd is Longhorn quarterback Sam Ehlinger, who passed for two touchdowns and ran for 68 yards as a freshman in leading Texas to a 28-14 victory here in 2017.
 
Last year in Austin, Ehlinger was even better, completing 25-of-36 passes for 354 yards and three touchdowns and running 11 times for 52 yards and another score.
 
It just so happened that West Virginia's Will Grier was a little bit better that afternoon. Grier's 33-yard touchdown pass to Gary Jennings Jr. with 16 seconds left, followed by his two-point conversion run, lifted West Virginia to a 42-41, come-from-behind victory over the Longhorns.
 
But now Grier is playing in the NFL with the Carolina Panthers while his replacement, junior Austin Kendall, is still developing as a college quarterback.
 
"He's very savvy," Herman said of Kendall. "The ball comes out quick. You can tell he understands the offense. He's fun to watch – a good player."
 
Ehlinger is more than just good and Brown admits it will be next to impossible to stop him completely on Saturday. 
 
Figuring out a way to slow him down will be a big key for the Mountaineers.
 
"Their quarterback is a Heisman Trophy candidate and they're super-talented at wide out with multiple guys being dangerous," Brown said. "And they've been able to run the ball effectively. We've got to do a really good job on first down and try and get them behind the chains, and we've got to force some takeaways in this game. I think that's going to be critical."
 
Herman says he has a lot of respect for Brown and what he's been able to do so far by winning three games with a completely new set of football players.
 
"The one thing that jumps off the film is he's gotten them to play really, really hard and physical," Herman said. "Schematically they're different. They try and get their athletes out in space and they create some confusion on defense with their standup end (Quondarius Qualls).
 


"And what they do in the secondary is a little bit unique, so it will be a good test for us on both sides of the ball."
 
Brown said it won't be difficult getting his team motivated to play the Longhorns this Saturday considering the Mountaineers are likely going to be a double-digit underdog when the ball goes in the air at 3:30 p.m. on ABC.
 
Saturday's game will be the most eyeballs on a West Virginia football team this year.
 
"If you're not motivated to play this game off a bye week … we're playing on national television against one of the top programs in the country," he said. "I don't think we'll need a bunch of motivational ploys this weekend."
 
Herman mentioned his team's 6-2 record in conference road games since he's been at Texas as proof that his guys are capable of taking care of business away from Austin. He expects his team to be focused when they get on an airplane this Friday afternoon.
 
"I feel like our guys do as good a job as I've been around of being able to tune out distractions," he said.
 
We will have more from Brown and his thoughts on the Longhorns following his weekly afternoon news conference in the team room inside the Milan Puskar Center on Tuesday.