WVU head football coach Neal Brown (left) and center Zach Frazier (60) watch a practice drill.

MORGANTOWN — Normally a college football team gets a chance to play its way into the most important of its season, with maybe one featured non-conference game early but this will be no normal season for West Virginia.

With Neal Brown’s performance under review by a new athletic director in Wren Baker and with base starved for a winning season, two of the first three games this year may decide just what kind of year it will be as the Mountaineers take on two traditional rivals.

The times and television schedule of those three games were finalized on Wednesday and, if nothing else, it promises to be a rowdy, wild start to the year, especially the 106th renewal of the Backyard Brawl.

That meeting with Pitt, a game that well may decide Brown’s fate, is the season’s third game and will be played under the lights at Mountaineer Field on Sept. 16 at 7:30 p.m.

The game will be aired on ABC and the only thing missing will be the voice of the legendary Keith Jackson bringing the Brawl to the nation.

It had been previously announced that the season opener, a tall challenge, indeed, being on the road at Penn State, will be played at 7:30 p.m. on NBC.

Penn State is expected to be a Top 10 team this season out of the Big Ten and will provide a measuring stick for the rebuilding job Brown has undertaken through the transfer portal for the Mountaineers, who finished last season at 5-7 and without a bowl.

Penn State has always had WVU’s number, the “rivalry” among the most one-sided in the nation. The Nittany Lions hold a 48-9-2 advantage and have lost to WVU only 3 times in 34 games in State College.

The last time was 1954.

The Backyard Brawl is closer and more fiercely contested with the Panthers holding a 62-40-3 advantage. Even in Morgantown Pitt holds a 19-17-3 edge.

Another rivalry may get its start this year and that one also had its game time and TV affiliation announced with WVU traveling to Houston to face its former coach Dana Holgorsen in what figures to be another highly emotional experience for Mountaineer players and fans.

That game will be televised on FS1 on Thursday night, Oct. 12, as Houston joins the Big 12 Conference this year. The two teams have never played.

WVU will open its home season on Sept. 9 with a regional — though not rivalry — matchup against Duquesne out of Pittsburgh. That’s set for a 6 p.m. start and will be carried on the Big 12 Now network via ESPN+.

WVU holds a 4-3-1 advantage of Duquesne in a rivalry of a series that last was played in 1935.