Week one of the college football season is upon us and with that comes WVU's season opener against No. 8 Penn State.
The Nittany Lions went 10-3 in 2023, and 7-2 in Big Ten play, before losing in the Peach Bowl, 38-25 to Penn State.
PSU is led by head coach James Franklin but has three new coordinators. Former Indiana head coach Tom Allen is the PSU defensive coordinator, former Kansas offensive coordinator Andy Kotelncki takes over the OC position, and Justin Lustig is PSU's new defensive coordinator.
At Penn State, Franklin is 8-2 in week one games. His last loss came in the shortened 2020 season as PSU lost 36-35 on the road to Indiana. He is also 2-2 in road games to open the season, beating Purdue in 2022 and Wisconsin in 2021. The other game came in 2015 when PSU lost 27-10 to Temple.
Last Meeting
One year ago, West Virginia and Penn State played in this game when WVU headed to Penn State and lost 38-15. In that game, PSU passed for 332 yards and three touchdowns, rushing for another 146 yards and two touchdowns.
West Virginia rushed for 146 yards last season, the second-most rush yards a team compiled against PSU in 2023.
Offense
Penn State returns three key starters at quarterback and both running back spots this year.
That starts with Drew Allar at quarterback who passed for 25 touchdowns and two interceptions, completing 60 percent of his passes last season. He also rushed for 206 yards and four touchdowns in 2023. His best game last year came in the opener against the Mountaineers. He passed for 325 yards, completing 21 of his 29 pass attempts, adding three scores through the air as well.
At running back is the duo of Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton. Both rushers passed the 750-yard mark last year, with Allen leading the way with 902 yards and six scores on the ground. He also had 81 reception yards and a touchdown. Against WVU he totaled 10 rushes for 51 yards and had one catch for 15 yards. Singleton had 752 total yards last season along with eight touchdowns. He added 308 reception yards and two touchdowns as well. He had 70 yards on 13 rushes and scored a touchdown against WVU last season.
As far as guys on the outside, for Allar to throw the ball to, there are multiple weapons Penn State deploys. Harrison Wallace had 19 catches for 228 yards last year with 72 of those yards coming against WVU. Julian Fleming came to PSU this offseason from Ohio State. He had 26 grabs for 270 yards last year. Liam Clifford had 13 catches for 130 yards, catching two passes for 25 yards against West Virginia.
Tyler Warren is PSU's top returning receiver as far as production goes, as he had 34 catches for 422 yards and seven touchdowns last season.
On the offensive line, Penn State lost three of their top starters. The Nittany Lions return multiple guys who played last season, but only one saw more than 500 snaps.
Olaivavega Ioane recorded 670 snaps finishing last year with a 66.5 grade according to Pro Football Focus. JB Nelson had 417 snaps with a 62.8 PFF grade. Drew Shelton had 385 snaps with a 57.9 PFF grade and then Nick Dawkins totaled 189 snaps and compiled a 72.4 PFF grade.
Defense
On the defensive side of the ball, there is a lot of production returning across the board.
It starts and ends with Abdul Carter, who will be playing between defensive end and linebacker. Carter had 48 total tackles with 5.5 TFLs, and 4.5 sacks, as well as an interception and forced fumble. Against WVU though he had only one tackle which was a sack.
Other pieces on the PSU d-line include Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant. Sutton had 26 tackles, 6 TFLs, 3.5 sacks, and a pair of forced fumbles. Durant totaled 17 tackles, 5.5 TFLs and two sacks.
Elsewhere on PSU's defense is Dominic DeLuca who had 29 tackles, 4.5 TFLs, two forced fumbles, two interceptions, and a sack. Against WVU he had one tackle which was a sack.
Kobe King also returns for PSU, as he had 59 tackles, 6.0 TFLs, and 1.5 sacks. Against WVU he had five total tackles.
In the secondary is Kevin Winston who had 61 tackles as well as 2.5 TFLs and an interception. Winston also led PSU in tackles last year. There is also Jaylen Reed who had 46 tackles, 4.0 TFLs, two interceptions, and a sack. Last year against WVU Winston had three tackles and Reed had four tackles.
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