A college football appointment amid the purple haze of East Carolina University. A warm, September Saturday deep down Tobacco Road. A televised affair.

West Virginia has been there. And lost.

If any members of the fourth-ranked Mountaineers are feeling fat and happy over a 3-0 start and a seemingly soft, cushy afternoon ahead in the Tar Heel State and on ESPN2, they need only realize that two of West Virginia's past three trips to play at East Carolina have gone badly. They need only listen to West Virginia defensive line coach Bill Kirelawich, for 26 years a growling part of the team's staff.

"I've seen some good games there," said Kirelawich, who witnessed all but two victories in a series the Mountaineers lead, 15-2, the losses being key, "and I've seen some ... ugly games.

"You always remember the losses. Always. Vividly."

He remembers 1995. He remembers 1999. Always. Vividly. Each time, West Virginia traveled to North Carolina and lost to the underdog hosts. The first one also came on ESPN2 and inside the same venue as Saturday's contest, 43,000-seat Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium. The Mountaineers are the highest-ranked opponent to visit that Greenville, N.C., locale since then-No. 3 Miami on Halloween 1987. The second loss came in then-Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, N.C.

Both upsets, coincidentally, were fueled by a fiery pregame talk from the East Carolina strength coach from Brownsville, Fayette County, and Salem College in West Virginia. By all accounts, he gave the same speech.

"We had a motivational speech that morning. One of our coaches was actually from West Virginia -- our strength coach. We kind of dedicated that game to him. He gave us a speech about the coal mines and how tough it was and the mentality there ... those guys are just tough. We ended up playing quite well," recalled Nick Crabtree, a holder and backup punter on that 1999 East Carolina team.

"He did that to us as well," big brother Eddie Crabtree, a holder and backup punter on that 1995 East Carolina team, said with a chuckle on the telephone a few moments later from their CrabWorks seafood company in Dunn, N.C. "It was a story about growing up in the West Virginia coal mines, how tough his family life was, pretty much to prepare us that we needed to be tough to beat these guys."

Perhaps it's a good thing for the Mountaineers that Jeff Connors, currently the strength coach at the University of North Carolina, is scheduled to be at Clemson with the Tar Heels Saturday. It should be noted that he was three years gone from the East Carolina staff when the Mountaineers came to Dowdy-Ficklen in 2003 and prevailed, 48-7, one of five consecutive West Virginia victories in the series.

True, these are different times in each program's history. The Mountaineers are ascending under Rich Rodriguez, winners of 10 in a row; they are not one of those sub-.500, retooling teams of Don Nehlen. The Pirates (1-2) -- who enter their home field through purple smoke and Jimi Hendrix's blaring "Purple Haze" -- are scuffling under Skip Holtz; they are not the bowl-bound teams coached by Steve Logan back then. Yet a history lesson appears in order.

On Sept. 30, 1995, Kirelawich recalled, "their opening play was a touchdown. It started off bad and went downhill from there." The Pirates opened a 20-3 lead early in the second quarter. West Virginia, which started that season at No. 23 but faded en route to a 5-6 finish, mounted a comeback to tie the score at 20-20 early in the fourth. Logan then put quarterback Marcus Crandell into a hurry-up offense, and the Pirates -- despite five turnovers -- won on a 27-yard field goal with little more than two minutes left, 23-20.

On Sept. 4, 1999, in the season opener played on the other side of the Tar Heel State and on the NFL Carolina Panthers' grass, Kirelawich recalled, "We went down and got beat there, too. Didn't stop the option." Jamie Wilson rushed for a career-high 183 yards on 20 carries and a sophomore quarterback named David Garrard ran for 85 and passed for 105 more. Garrard capped a 57-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge with 56 seconds left for another home Pirates triumph, 30-23. The Mountaineers ended up 4-7.

Perhaps that explains why Kirelawich concluded, "I'm nervous about going down there on Saturday."

"You always remember the losses. Always. Vividly."