West Virginia opened the 2024 season with a 34-12 loss to No. 8 Penn State on Saturday.

Staff writer Wesley Shoemaker picks out five things from the game yesterday that stood out and dives into each.

It's never going to be easy to run the ball against a front like the one Penn State possesses, but for West Virginia, they couldn't do anything they wanted on the ground. Outside of some early success which was taken away due to turnovers and miscues, the Mountaineers never got anything going on offense the entire afternoon.

Jahiem White did get banged up in the first half and he didn't seem like himself in the action he saw after that. White had eight carries for 33 yards but the important number there is the eight carries. Last season White had only five games where he notched fewer than eight carries in a game. In three of those five games he had one or no carries at all.

CJ Donaldson's running was fine grabbing 42 yards on 12 carries but the most puzzling out of the rushing attack was Garrett Greene. Greene never really used his legs to get away or in the way he used them last year. The design runs never seemed to be there and his scramble ability was limited by both PSU design but also him just deciding to throw the ball during times when he could've tucked it away and ran.

All offseason, the word accuracy has been thrown around regarding QB Garrett Greene and how he needs to improve from his 53 percent completion rate in 2023. On Saturday Greene completed 15 of his 28 passing attempts which is 53.6 percent.

Greene looked uncomfortable all afternoon and while that Penn State defense is really good there were times he had receivers open and he missed them just barely where it ended up being too difficult to make the catch. Later in the game, he found somewhat of a rhythm but overall he struggled with his accuracy.

Now, I don't want to say this is the end all be all for him and to say that he's not an improved passer. Looking at WVU's schedule the PSU team was probably the best defense he is set to face on WVU's schedule. Will he be better than Saturday consistently, I want to say yes, but only time will tell.

The buzz surrounding the game was immense for West Virginia. Former Mountaineer Pat McAfee brought his daily ESPN show to Morgantown on Thursday and FOX tabbed the game as their Big Noon Kickoff game. The crowd was certainly into it and showed up in full force but the home team never really gave them a chance to have an impact on the game.

It seemed as though early WVU had a chance to really take control of things and get the crowd into it. From the fumble that the Mountaineers got inside the PSU 30-yard line seemed to provide a serious spark. However, a West Virginia miscue on the snap on the next play turned the ball back over. Then going down the field and having two fourth down decisions, both 4th and 1. The first one (which they picked up) I thought they should've taken the points. The second (which they didn't pick up) I thought they should've gone for it.

Games like that don't come around often where there is a building with that type of electricity. Even a score in the first quarter and being the first team to put up points helps in a big way. It's a shame WVU could never really use that to their advantage because Mountaineer fans showed up.

Josiah Trotter made his long-awaited debut for West Virginia on Saturday and he was very productive in his role at linebacker.

Trotter led the team in tackles with 10 with five of them being solo tackles. While the clip many around the sport will remember is him getting stiff-armed by PSU QB Drew Allar, he's still able to make the tackle on that play and he was a bright spot for a WVU defense that seemed to have issues throughout the afternoon.

Trotter is in a crowded linebacker room with multiple guys playing those two spots throughout yesterday's game. Trotter's talent was on display and even though there might be one play that doesn't look great to eyes outside of the WVU bubble, Trotter certainly seems ready to be a key contributor for this defense.

This time last season West Virginia lost to Penn State by a similar score and still turned things around to win nine games. I think there is somewhat of an overreaction from some fans because of how this team played to end the 2023 season and because this game was at home and they finally felt like this was WVU's shot to get a signature win under Neal Brown.

Brown will argue he's had plenty of signature wins while at WVU including pairs of wins over Virginia Tech, a win over Pitt last year as well as wins over Texas and Oklahoma.

Either way you slice it, WVU played far from their best, especially on the offensive side of the football. I'd argue this is the worst game played for WVU's offense since Iowa State in 2022 which that game was flat-out ugly.

This same group of players showed how good they can be last year. If WVU wants to make the College Football Playoff they certainly can still do that. Now will they do anything close to that if they played like they played yesterday, no. But we've seen these same players and same coaches have success just last season. While from a fan perspective for many it might feel like the sky is falling, it isn't This team can still be good, they can still win upwards of eight or nine games, but they have to get better and they will be the first ones to tell you that.

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