The long wait between college football seasons officially ended this past weekend. For West Virginia fans, that wait ends in just a few days. This Saturday, August 31, the Mountaineers host Penn State to open the 2024 season. When the opening kick takes place in Morgantown at noon on Saturday, the Mountaineers will look to make a statement to the national media, which will still be overlooking them after a 9-4 season in 2023.
Mountaineers Host Penn State
The last time the Mountaineers hosted Penn State in Morgantown, George Bush occupied the White House, Don Nehlen coached the Old Gold and Blue, and Joe Paterno coached the Nittany Lions. Much has changed since then. Some things, however, look the same. Aubrey Burks said it well during his August 5 interview, “We’re trying to earn everyone’s respect.” He added that when the Mountaineers take the field this Saturday, “it’s about proving everybody else wrong.” That perception finds its way to print in a lot of publications. Forbes’ sports betting website says, “PSU should smother the Mountaineers and win going away in the second half.” ESPN gives the Nittany Lions a 78% chance of leaving Morgantown with a win.
That said, Burks flips the coin and looks at the game this way, “The pressure is more on them.” After all, everyone expects Penn State to win. Few expect West Virginia to open its 2024 season with an upset win over a top-10 Penn State team.
Head Coach Neal Brown offered some mixed words in his August 7 interview, when he told the media that, if the Mountaineers want to win, “We have got to be significantly better than in our first game a year ago.” All Fall camp, Brown and his staff told the media that they were hosting a physical camp to match the physical schedule they play. That begins with Penn State, and the Mountaineers started game prep this past Wednesday. On the encouraging side, Brown also told the media about the team, “They’re a group that really wants to do well.” Because of that, he and his staff have had to look for new ways to consistently challenge the squad.
Continuing Focus on Small Things
In our Fall camp series, we wrote about how the Mountaineers have shifted their attention to the small details of their game. That is not to say West Virginia is a perfect squad. Rather, the team features more veteran players than it has in several years. Those veteran leaders have learned how to train their bodies. They understand the concepts they will be asked to execute on all three sides of the ball. Now, they can focus on fine-tuning the finer points of execution rather than reinventing their game plan entirely. Honestly, this may give the Mountaineers a slight advantage heading into the opener. After all, Penn State replaces most of its offensive line and replaces its offensive coordinator. Andy Kotelnicki joins James Franklin’s staff from Kansas, but he brings a new offensive scheme to State College. Kotelnicki hopes to bring the explosive elements of his offense to bear at Penn State. That said, with any new offense, there will be growing pains. West Virginia certainly hopes it can benefit from that.
After all, instead of reinventing its offense, which brings plenty of explosive elements led by a confident Garrett Greene, the Mountaineers can dig in and focus on the new window dressing and those small details that can turn a few tough bounces into a multi-score victory.
How Much Has the Defense Improved?
If you’ve been reading our Fall camp position series, you may have gathered the sense that we believe the Mountaineer defense will take a fairly big step forward this season. A large part of the reason is the depth in the linebacker room. While the room, on the whole, remains young, West Virginia has a depth of talent. Given that the linebacker is the quarterback of Jordan Lesley’s defense, the Mountaineers will rely on that depth to keep instructions flowing between the secondary and the defensive line. Burks’ transition to spear should help the Mountaineers get into the backfield more often and disrupt Drew Allar’s timing. Given that Allar carved up West Virginia’s secondary to open last season, that disruption will be critical.
That said, as ShaDon Brown told the media on August 5, “Nothing’s true until you put it on the field and prove it.” As Burks said, most of the nation overlooks West Virginia at present. That gives Lesley more room to experiment with his defense and throw a few new looks to confuse Allar and disrupt his effort to get comfortable in Penn State’s new offense. Given the replacements to Penn State’s offensive line, we think the most critical questions to the outcome of the season opener are the following two questions. First, can the Mountaineers successfully sell out to stop the run? Second, once they do, can they disrupt Allar enough to shut the pass down and force a few turnovers? If the defense has improved enough to execute these critical components, then the Mountaineers’ offense should have plenty of room to work.
Dual Threat Offense Poised
Despite replacing a couple of multiyear starters on their offensive line, the Mountaineers replace those starters with senior leaders. They seem poised to maintain the standard set by the 2023 offensive line’s performance. The bodies are there to do it. Provided they can provide that protection, they should give CJ Donaldson and Jahiem White plenty of room to work. Maintaining efficiencies with a two-headed thunder-and-lightning backfield, the West Virginia offense could give Greene enough room to work to give Penn State plenty of work on defense. They repeatedly proved their ability to move the ball last season, and, if they can carry that explosiveness into the red zone with more frequency in 2024, they should give the defense just enough room to take the risks they need to contain Allar and the Nittany Lions’ own two-headed running game.
Greene worked plenty on his short and intermediate passing this offseason. A healthy Kole Taylor, a few new larger bodies in the receiving room, and some returning speed in that room should provide Greene with all the weapons he needs to keep Penn State off balance. Indeed, that makes the entire West Virginia offense a dual-threat unit. Executing the details of that offense will, at the very least, keep the game competitive.
We look forward to seeing the action play out as West Virginia hosts Penn State this Saturday at noon on Big Noon Saturday on FOX.
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