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Football schedule announced for Mountaineers 2018 season

By Matthew Peaslee

LANDOVER, MD - SEPTEMBER 03: Head coach Dana Holgorsen of the West Virginia Mountaineers watches as his team takes the field before the start of their game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at FedExField on September 3, 2017 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
LANDOVER, MD - SEPTEMBER 03: Head coach Dana Holgorsen of the West Virginia Mountaineers watches as his team takes the field before the start of their game against the Virginia Tech Hokies at FedExField on September 3, 2017 in Landover, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /
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The 2017 football season is not even near its ending, but the Mountaineers now have reason to look ahead to 2018.

On Thursday, the WVU football team released the schedule for the 2018 season. Every year since joining the Big 12 Conference, the slate has been among the toughest in the nation.

With an always beefed up out-of-conference schedule, the Mountaineers prove that they are not afraid to play anybody. The program has been built on playing in big match ups and that will never change. However, 2018 may be the toughest schedule the Mountaineers have faced to date.

The WVU football team will play nine Big 12 games and three out-of-conference games. Just like in the 2017 season, the first game of the year will take place away from Milan Puskar Stadium when the Mountaineers play Tennessee.

The game won’t be held at Neyland Stadium where the Volunteers play, either. The game will actually take place at a neutral site, like the kickoff game this year when the Mountaineers played Virginia Tech in Washington, D.C. The match up between West Virginia and Tennessee will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina on Sept. 1.

The home opener for the Mountaineers will be a week later at Milan Puskar Stadium when Youngstown State comes to town. The Mountaineers hosted the Penguins in 2015. In 2016, YSU played for the FCS National Championship.

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The third out-of-conference game is against North Carolina State which will have the Mountaineers making a return trip to North Carolina for this one on Sept. 15. The Big 12 portion of the schedule will begin on Sept. 22.

The Mountaineers will host Kansas State in that first home game. On Sept. 29, the Mountaineers travel to Texas Tech for the first Big 12 road game. On Oct. 6, West Virginia is back at home hosting Kansas. The Mountaineers travel again on Oct. 13 playing on the road at Iowa State. The bye week for 2018 comes Oct. 20 as the Mountaineers prepare for a rare weekday match up the following week.

On Thursday, Oct. 25, the Mountaineers will host Baylor. Having a Thursday game is rare anymore but the Big 12 will have two in 2018 with the Bears-WVU game being one and a Texas Tech-TCU earlier in October being another one. The Mountaineers haven’t played a Thursday home game since being part of the Big East Conference.

In November, the Mountaineers start the month playing at Texas on Nov. 3. On Nov. 10, WVU hosts TCU. On Nov. 17 West Virginia will play at Oklahoma State. The final regular season game for the Mountaineers comes on a Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when Milan Puskar Stadium will be the site of the Oklahoma game.

Next: 30 best games in WVU football history

In a way too early prediction, let’s go ahead and say the Mountaineers will breeze through this tough slate and play again on Dec. 1 in the Big 12 Championship.

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