One of John Denver’s greatest hits plays over and over at KU Jayhawks’ football practice

University of Kansas students with early-morning classes in the vicinity of the practice fields next to Booth Memorial Stadium were treated to a catchy tune while walking on campus Wednesday morning.

The late John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” blared over the loudspeaker as KU’s football players ran drills in preparation for Saturday’s Big 12 opener at West Virginia.

Kickoff is 5 p.m. Central time at 60,000-seat Milan Puskar Stadium.

“Country Roads” as the song often is called has been played at every WVU home football game pregame show since 1972. It is played after every home victory and also during the game with fans making sure to sing along.

In 1980, Denver performed “Country Roads” during pregame for a sold-out crowd of Mountaineers football fans. His performance of “Country Roads” marked the dedication of Mountaineer Field and the first game (against Cincinnati) for head coach Don Nehlen.

The playing/singing of the song on game day helps make for an intimidating atmosphere for the opponents of WVU.

The Mountaineers, who dropped their season opener at Pitt, 38-31, last Thursday night, have won 18 consecutive home openers and 21 of the last 22. Throughout history, West Virginia is 101-20-6 in home openers.

The Jayhawks are 0-6 all-time in Morgantown.

“Shout out to Jimmy Le our video coordinator. He’s already worked ahead and every opponent fight song that they’re going to play on the road and what they play in their stadium is all queued up and ready to go, so we’re preparing for an environment we think we are going to go into,” KU offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki said Wednesday explaining the choice of music at practices in a given week.

The Jayhawks, who will leave for West Virginia on Friday, will certainly be used to hearing “Country Roads” by game time Saturday.

“Everybody’s pumped up. They (KU coaches) have been trying to keep it loud so we can lock in, so we can communicate at a high level with all the noise,” KU senior safety Kenny Logan Jr., said after practice Wednesday. “We want to make sure we click on every aspect in communicating well,” Logan added.

KU quarterback Jalon Daniels — he completed 15 of 18 passes for 189 yards, one touchdown and one interception and rushed for 29 yards on three carries and a score in KU’s season-opening 56-10 rout of Tennessee Tech on Friday — doesn’t mind hearing WVU’s fan favorite song over and over.

“Honestly I don’t even pay attention when it comes on. I’m really just in a practice mode,” Daniels said. “It’s not just that song per se, we have a lot of crowd noises out there as well to simulate how it’ll be in the game. It’s an enclosed stadium from what I’ve heard. They said it’s supposed to be loud when we’re out there. We’re just trying to put ourselves in a game situation in practice so when we go out there we’re able to play our game,” Daniels stated.

Daniels said he’s been impressed with West Virginia’s football team on film.

“Their front seven is good. They are able to move around,” Daniels said of the defensive line. “They are very good at trying to distort an offense. We have to be able to go out there and execute what we’re able to do.”

Amid all the crowd noise.