The first game of a new college football season is always an exciting one.
The new year is full of promise and possibilities, and every team feels that this is a year that it can take a step forward. Open the season against a rival and the buzz around the program is hard to ignore.
The University of Charleston and West Virginia State enjoy that feeling this weekend as the Golden Eagles make the 12-mile drive down the road to Institute to open the season against their Kanawha County rivals.
Charleston has dominated the rivalry in recent years. The Golden Eagles have won eight consecutive meetings against the Yellow Jackets - with WVSU last beating its cross-county rival in 2008. Last year UC was able to beat West Virginia State in convincing fashion with a 26-7 victory at UC Stadium.
"Both teams came out and got after it pretty good last year," Charleston coach Pat Kirkland said. "You could see on the film that there was added excitement around the game because it's a rivalry, and I think you'll be able to see that again on Saturday.
"At the same time that we're excited to play a rival here, we're equally excited to just get our season started. They have a lot of new people around the program and it's hard to know what to expect."
West Virginia State is hoping to change those recent fortunes this year, the first of the John Pennington era. The former West Virginia University wide receiver - who spent the last two seasons as the Yellow Jackets' offensive coordinator - has brought in a coaching staff full of other former Mountaineers and they believe their team can generate plenty of buzz throughout the community and rebound from the last few tough seasons.
"We've tried to emphasize who we're going to become as a team and find out who our personnel is going to be and develop the right mindset for when we get on the field," Pennington said. "It's all new here, so we're trying to lay the foundation and make this into the type of program we want to be here. You never know what you're going to get the first few games.
"Our goal is to go out and play Yellow Jacket football and we'll play hard and see how we do. We know if we do those little things, then good things can happen."
One of the main lessons that both coaching staffs have preached to their teams is discipline. Both teams had stretches during their three-win seasons a year ago where penalties and other mental mistakes proved costly, and they understand that in order to improve, those mistakes need to be eliminated.
That discipline could especially be needed in a rivalry game like this, where emotions will run high for both teams as they try to start off on the right foot.
"That's going to be a big key and it's one of the big aspects we've been focusing on," UC cornerback Cedric Amadi said. "When everyone is flying around, people get heated and you have to be able to stay focused and keep your mind on the task in front of you. You can't let the fact that this is a rivalry game or our first game of the year impact how you play because the minute you lose sight of what you're supposed to do a big play can happen and that will hurt you."