We’re offer Landover, Md., today for tomorrow’s WVU v. BYU game. Friend of the Book Mike Patrick will call the game!

(Sorry, I spent 10 minutes reminiscing there. I’m good to go. You good to go?)

– I think you should buckle up for this one. It’s going to be physical and it ought to be close, based on the trajectories of these two teams so far this season. (I think the winner is also the answer to this question: Who shows up? BYU’s offense or WVU’s defense?)

Plan for some drama, too. The Cougars won games against Nebraska and Boise State in back-to-back weeks last season on Hail Marys. They beat Arizona this season on a field goal with 4 seconds to go. They lost to Utah when they missed a two-point conversion with 18 seconds left. They scored a touchdown to draw within three points of UCLA with 37 seconds remaining and then failed to recover the onside kick.

Plus, college football has lost its mind this season. There are missed field goals being returned for touchdowns. Guys are flipping laterals on Hail Marys. For some reason, players insist on dropping the football before they cross the goal line. So, consider BYU’s penchant for white-knuckle moments and the fact that these things this year seem to want to involve a Big 12 team and anticipate something.

WVU actually spends a good amount of time on these seemingly minor details so that they don’t become major events. Well, as much as the weekly schedule allows. On Thursdays, for instance, they devote two practice reps to throwing and defending Hail Marys. There’s time every now and then devoted to returning missed field goals and shutting down those returns.

But in the offseason, there’s more time, and that’s when WVU physically prepares. In the season, there are periodic drills but regular conversations to reinforce.

Remember, WVU went to great lengths to make sure players were programmed to try to score on interceptions and fumble recoveries. That was useful preparation for a new mandate: Go after every ball on the ground, even and especially if an opponent reached the end zone and the official is signaling a touchdown. One never knows.

And in the spring, there was one error pretty much no one noticed in the moment, and that gave WVU a head start on this week’s teaching moments.

Dropping the ball before reaching the end zone isn’t a new phenomenon. It’s happened sporadically for years — Jerry Rice did it once — and even at WVU. In a scrimmage during the spring, cornerback Antonio Crawford intercepted a pass and returned it for a touchdown, which was a positive because the defense spent the offseason detailing ways to turn interceptions and fumble recoveries into touchdown returns.

But the film caught Crawford dropping the ball before the goal line. Holgorsen pointed it out the next time the team watched film. On Sunday, the first time the Mountaineers met following the latest examples, Holgorsen reminded everyone that if they do score a touchdown, they’re supposed to cross the goal line, find an official and hand him the ball.

But that wasn’t enough security. The Mountaineers then went outside and practiced it.

“We made every one of our skill guys run as fast as they can to the goal line with two hands on it and get into the end zone and hand the ball to one of our managers, who was dressed up as a referee,” Holgorsen said. “If it happens to us, it’s not because of a lack of working on it.”

– WVU v. Florida State is, I guess, on. Still. I don’t know. It was never not on, but WVU Athletic Director Shane Lyons said the game is a “go.”

– The Mountaineers are guaranteed $2.425 million for the BYU game, and a ticket sales incentive can deliver up to $200,000 more. I wouldn’t take that to the bank.

While Lyons was on the line, he was asked about the expected attendance for Saturday’s BYU-WVU game at FedExField.

He estimated “30,000 to 35,000,” but said with expected good weather “there may be a good walk-up” crowd.

Associate athletic director Matt Wells, meanwhile, said WVU would account for approximately 10,000 in attendance “through our office when you include band, players’ families, travel party and tickets sold.”

– Speaking of Lyons, he was in Dallas earlier this week for a convention with a slew of other ADs. So was Kansas State’s John Currie, and that was a fun little story to track. I didn’t believe it to be true, but I was nevertheless keeping an eye on it and also trying to figure out how to use it for my class. (Oh, did you know I teach a sports reporting class? Have I not mentioned this sufficiently in the past? Should I in the future?)

But before it became clear Currie was in Dallas, I was texting some people I knew to be there — it was not all ADs — and asked if they’d seen Curry. Along the way, I heard Lyons and Pitt AD Scott Barnes had huddled for a while, and the hope is they’re trying to get the basketball series back on the schedule.

– A sidebar about WVU v. BYU. The game was scheduled in September 2010, which is a long time ago, even by scheduling standards. Dana Holgorsen was the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State. Algernon Brown was … well, he was a freshman at BYU. But it was a while ago.

A neutral-site game was still sort of new, if not throughout the country, then for the Mountaineers. They hadn’t done something like that since 1999, when they lost to ECU in Charlotte. (Playing Temple at Veterans Stadium or Cincinnati at Paul Brown Stadium doesn’t count.) But being guaranteed $2.225 million for the game and getting a ticket incentive while being responsible for none of the operation costs and paying for bus service instead of a chartered plane was a good deal.

In June 2011 — 10 days after Bill Stewart resigned and Holgorsen was promoted from head coach-in-waiting — WVU signed a deal to play JMU at FedEx Field. For one reason or another, the Mountaineers received an additional $200,000 for the BYU game.

– So, scheduling is either boring or interesting as heck. There’s no in between, but I’m obviously fascinated by it. I wonder what it would be like to cover BYU, the comments here this week notwithstanding. I’d love to get a look at their contracts, but it’s a private school, and I suppose that might not happen. But, man, look at these schedules!

That’s, I guess, the cost of doing independent business, but credit the Cougars for taking this endeavor super seriously. The reward is obvious: BYU’s never going to have to apologize for its schedule if and when it joins the College Football Playoff conversations. The risk? The Cougars are 1-2, and they still have to play some really good teams.

But don’t let that trick you into thinking that matters whatsoever tomorrow.

It’s nothing new to the Cougars, and neither is the 1-2 record. It’s the sixth time since 2006 the school has lost two of its first three games. They finished 11-2 in 2006 and 2007, 7-6 in 2010, 10-3 in 2011 and 8-5 in 2013.

“The main thing I think everyone needs to understand is don’t look at the win-loss record,” WVU coach Dana Holgorsen said at his weekly news conference Tuesday. “Look at their history and tradition and who they’ve played this year and how competitive overall their program has been for decades.

“They’ve got unbelievable tradition and history when it comes to playing really good football. This team is no different. They could easily be 3-0. They’ve got tremendous football players. They’re big, physical, fast and they’re very passionate about playing the game of football.”

I don’t know about “easily,” but Holgorsen’s motivational speaking has been in Week 10 mode all season.

– Remember this?

We have an explanation! Tyron Carrier called the play from above the field.

Throughout the game, they stacked one receiver above another on each side of the field. They’d either run into space in the middle or throw a quick pass outside to the receiver with a blocker in front of him.

McKoy was lined up as a blocker in front of Shelton Gibson when receivers coach Tyron Carrier told Holgorsen to throw the pass to McKoy. Howard took the snap and looked left to Gibson as the two defenders out there raced forward, but that left McKoy open behind them for an easy score.

“They kept sliding up a little closer,” said Carrier, who sits in the coaching box above the field. “We were getting 6 yards on those plays consistently. Two of those are a first down. If you let us go all the way down the field like that, we’ll take it. As soon as you try to play it, we’ve got a solution for that. I saw we’d baited them in, and that’s when I called for it.”

– BYU’s sticking with Taysom Hill at quarterback. WVU is prepared to see Hill and Tanner Magnum Mangum. (Auto-correct!) The BYU fans with which I’ve had fun and civil interactions say BYU will never demote Hill — he’s a solid dude who’s bene through a lot, and many of them believe he’s just better. Also, BYU’s offensive line is a mess — missing three players fans assumed would be starters — and the team isn’t happy with the receivers.

– Hill, on the other hand, points the finger at himself.

– And finally, if it’s a close game, it could come down to the kickers. WVU has Mike Molina, the backup to Josh Lambert, whose suspension ends after this game. BYU has Jake Oldroyd, a freshman who already has one game-winner. He missed practice time this week and might not play Saturday.