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Penn State Dominates West Virginia in Delayed Opener

Tagged under: News, Pennsylvania Colleges

| August 31, 2024

Photo Credit Paul Burdick (Maxpreps)

Morgantown, West Virginia: a scenic little town of 30,000 right in the middle of the Appalachian. Typically, for a majority of the year, the draw to Morgantown is the incredible scenery and the surrounding mountain ranges. Today, however, nobody cared about the mountains, or the birds singing, they cared about Penn State vs West Virginia.

  James Franklin led the Nittany Lions into their biggest season in quite some time today. With the playoff expanding to 12 teams, there are no more excuses, Penn State needs to make their playoff debut this year. His first test was a red-hot West Virginia Mountaineer team that went 5-1 in their last 6 games last year. 

  After not playing for over 8 months, both teams were extremely sloppy out of the gate. Penn State got their offensive season off to a rough start, as a bad snap gave West Virginia the ball with great field position, poised to make their mark on the game. The Mountaineers took the field for their first offensive play of the drive, and fumbled on a bad snap, just like Penn State. 

  In 2023, Drew Allar had the 2nd highest TD-INT ratio at 25-2. After just 32 yards in the first quarter, Allar unleashed 168 second-quarter yards en route to a 20-6 halftime lead. Harrison Wallace brought in two of those TDs and finished the first half with 5 catches for 117 yards and 2TDs. 

                 Brought to you by Ville Billy’s located in the Nittany Mall State College

 

  After a wild first half that saw many controversial calls, turnovers, and everything in between, another wrinkle hit Morgantown. Mother Nature felt left out and had to land a punch on these two teams. Over a long-term delay that pushed this game into the afternoon hours, the 20-6 game would resume with an interesting 2nd half. West Virginia struggled all first half to establish anything, could the weather delay be the great equalizer they need? On the flip side, would the great first-half momentum by Penn State be negated by the delay? The 2nd half told the story.

  Penn State came out of the 2nd half and took the initiative in the 3rd quarter. After a relatively down year in 2023, Nick Singelton found a gap and busted off a huge run to give PSU more insurance.

West Virginia was battered, torn, beaten, and in trouble, but didn’t back down. Whilst trailing 27-6 into the 4th quarter, the Mountaineers got into the endzone on a controversial TD call. I’ll let you make the call if CJ Donaldson Jr was in:

Allar had a great day but was not the only Nittany Lion to throw a TD pass. Beau Pribula found Tyler Warren and PSU led 34-12.

It’s interesting how much Pribula played in week 1. With Allar going to the NFL at season’s end being a real possibility, having Pribula play meaningful reps could pay dividends later in the season.

This was a complete performance by Penn State. Although sloppy early on, the Nittany Lions were sharp for the majority of the day. For James Franklin, this felt like a coach’s week 1 dream. Penn State won the turnover battle, was efficient on third down, ran for over 200 yards, and played lights out on defense.

Although it is just week 1, this team feels different. Penn State went into one of the toughest environments in week 1, against a 9-win Power 4 school, and made it look easy.

FINAL SCORE: PENN STATE 34 WEST VIRGINIA 12

NOTABLE STATS:

PSU

Allar: 11-17 216 yds 3TD 0INT

Singleton: 13 car 114 yds 1TDs

Wallace III: 5 rec 117 yds 2TDs

Warren: 3 rec 30 yds 1TD

Allen: 10 car 20 yds 1 rec 20yds 1TD

DEFENSE:

Reed: 3 solo 6 assist 1 fumble recovery

Washington: 1 solo 1INT

Durant: 2 solo 2 assist 1 sack

Vilbert: 1 solo 1 sack

WEST VIRGINIA

Greene: 15/28 161 yds

Donaldson Jr: 12 car 42 yds 1TDs

White: 8 car 33yds

Defense: Did not record a sack or INT

 

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