MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is going into the lion's den on Saturday night.
 
Beaver Stadium, with a listed capacity of 106,572, is the second-largest venue in college football to Michigan's 107,601-seat Michigan Stadium and is one of only eight facilities with capacities exceeding 100,000.
 
The others are Ohio State's Ohio Stadium (102,780), Texas A&M's Kyle Field (102,733), LSU's Tiger Stadium (102,321), Tennessee's Neyland Stadium (101,915), Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium (101,821) and Texas' Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium (100,119).
 
West Virginia's has played six times at Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium with three of those contests topping 100,000, including the 101,851 that attended last year's game.
 
As of Tuesday, based on what is still available through secondary markets, it appears approximately 2,000 tickets can be purchased for Saturday's game through re-sellers, ranging from as low as $113 for an upper-level ticket to as much as $9,500 for a premium club seat.
 
Therefore, it's safe to assume a crowd approaching 106,000 or more for the game, although it's unlikely to match the record 110,889 that showed up for Penn State's 27-26 loss to Ohio State in 2018.
 
Nevertheless, it will be the most spectators to watch a West Virginia football game, not to mention the additional eyeballs in primetime on NBC. In a recent article behind Sportico's paywall, the publication indicated the network is anticipating a large viewership and is selling 30-second advertisements for $100,000.
 
That's priceless exposure for Neal Brown's Mountaineer football program.
 
"To me this is what it's all about," Brown said Monday. "When you play on NBC, ABC or CBS, I always think about my grandparents' house in Gravel Switch, Kentucky. If you have bunny ears you get those games. If anybody in West Virginia still has bunny ears, they get NBC.
 
"Some of you young guys in this room don't know what the hell I'm talking about, but any time you play on national television it's an opportunity," he explained. "People talk all the time, 'What a challenge.' You are starting with Penn State; yes, that's true, but it is up to us to make the most of it. It's a great opportunity. This is why you get into the profession. This is why you want to play big-time football for opportunities like this."
 
Brown has experience taking underdog teams into hostile venues. In 2017, he took Troy into Tiger Stadium and upset 22^nd-ranked LSU, 24-21. The Trojans also netted $985,000 for their day's work.
 
He was asked about that victory on Monday.
 
"We lost to Boise State early in the year; we had a team that won 10 games the year before and our guys really had a chip on their shoulder," he said. "I think each team is different. Any time you go into enemy territory, and you are a double-digit underdog against a highly ranked opponent, there have got to be some things go your way. But you've also got to have a good football team. My belief is we've got a good football team. Now, we've got to go prove it. It's hard to stand on a soap box until you go out and play a game.
 
"I like our group, and we'll be hungry," Brown added. "I tell our guys, 'We'll coach you up through Friday and then I'm looking forward to watching you on Saturday.'"
 

Having an experienced quarterback and an experienced center is helpful when playing in loud venues, and the Mountaineers have one of the best centers in the country in junior Zach Frazier. He brings 34 career starts into this year's opener and has played twice at Texas, once at sold-out Pitt, once at Virginia Tech and once at Oklahoma's Memorial Stadium.
 
If you recall, West Virginia was driving for the go-ahead score late in the Oklahoma game in 2021 when an inexperienced Frazier made a poor snap that took the Mountaineers out of field goal range. The Oklahoma defenders at the line of scrimmage were barking out calls and simulating West Virginia's cadence to try and throw off the young center.
 
It worked.
 
"Some of the louder games earlier in my career, we kind of changed how we did the snap count and stuff like that just because it's harder to hear," Frazier said. "Once you experience it, you are a lot better at it."
 
Brown is doing things in practice this week to try and simulate the atmosphere at Beaver Stadium. During team periods, he's taking the players inside the Caperton Indoor Practice Facility, closing the door and turning up the sound system as loud as possible.
 
"Will it be as loud as it's going to be there? I don't know, I've never been there for a game," Brown said. "But our guys are going to be prepared for as loud as we can possibly get it here. That can't be an excuse."
 
"We did both scout periods indoors, and I think we used every speaker we have blasting music. It probably won't be as loud as it's going to be, but it was pretty good because it was kind of hard hearing the person next to you," Frazier admitted.
 
Frazier said the key to operating in a loud environment is over-communicating and being loud as possible whenever making calls.
 
"If I tell something to the guard, the guard has got to turn to the tackle and tell them what I said to make sure we're all on the same page," he explained. "We played Texas last year and they had over 100,000, but it wasn't super-loud. From what I've heard, this is going to be a loud game."
 
It's also going to be physical.
 
Brown has said that last year's preparation leading into the opener at Pitt wasn't physical enough for his players, partly because of depth issues, and it resulted in a poor tackling performance from his defense.
 
He noted this year's camp was the most physical in his five years at West Virginia to match what he is expecting from Penn State on Saturday.
 
"We've done more good-on-good work, and we've worked on tackling in general as much as they let us by the rules," he said. "We've had a little bit of friendly fire where there may be some people questionable going into the game – more backups than starters – but that's kind of the price you pay.
 
"I know this game is going to be extremely physical when you look at both of their line of scrimmages and the talent they have. We must give our guys a chance, and the only way we can do that is by being super-physical," Brown concluded.
 
Frazier said he's tired of hitting his teammates and excited about the big challenge in front of them playing No. 7 Penn State, considered to be coach James Franklin's most talented team in his nine seasons there.
 
West Virginia is going to be a doubled-digit underdog.
 
"I like being the underdog because it fuels me," Frazier said. "It's going to be exciting, and I can't wait. I'm pumped up. A night game, primetime television. That's as big as it gets."