Eddie Vesterinen understands the challenge that lies ahead going against Penn State.

The West Virginia senior defensive lineman played a total of 47 snaps in last year’s season opener against the Nittany Lions and was able to get a firsthand look at what to expect.

There also was the late sting of the Penn State offense scoring a late touchdown and celebrating in the game’s final moments which is something that stood out to Vesterinen.

“I’ve seen that clip a hundred times. It just angers me,” he said.

But that was last year and things are now different. And with some changes up front and a new offensive coordinator for Penn State, there are things to sort through on that side of the ball.

Yes, the Nittany Lions did put some film out there from the spring game but it’s hard to sort through what is actually part of their offense and how much of it they revealed. That makes some other things important such as the previous stop for Andy Kotelnicki.

“We’ve got into watching the new offensive coordinator’s film at Kansas and we expect they will run similar plays to Kansas,” he said.

Vesterinen looks back at his performance last season and some of the things he could have done differently such as squeezing, making gaps smaller and improving his communication. The Finnish product believes much like a season ago, this year’s game will be won up front.

It’s the biggest home opener for West Virginia since No. 1 Ohio State came to Morgantown ahead of the 1998 season and this opportunity is something that Vesterinen signed up for when he made the decision to pursue his dreams of playing college football in the states.

But given the fact that Penn State is perched at No. 8 and has to come into Morgantown, there is more pressure on them to perform in this type of situation than the Mountaineers.

“The atmosphere, the pressure. And winning this game would be big time for us and our program,” Vesterinen said.

And Vesterinen is hoping that his efforts could lead to celebrating this year.

“I'm going to go against that guy and hopefully I get to do that against him,” he said.

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