Tag: West Virginia Mountaineers

WVU coach Neal Brown after loss to Penn State: ‘Our best players just didn’t play very well’

Here is what West Virginia head coach Neal Brown said about his team after losing to Penn State.

After winning more games than most people thought they would in 2023, West Virginia was as excited as ever to open up the 2024 season hosting Penn State, a top-10 team in the preseason polls making their first visit to Morgantown since 1992. The crowd was energetic and ready from the start, but Penn State managed to prevail with a big second-quarter outburst and controlled the game following an extended weather delay at halftime. After the game, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown did not shy away from saying his players did not play well in a 34-12 loss to Penn State.

“I’ll credit Penn State. (They’re a) good team. James (Franklin) does a really good job there,” Brown said in his postgame press conference. “He’s done it for a long time, but we played bad football. I can sit here and talk for a long time but that’s the deal.”

Franklin said in his postgame comments that his team excelled in some of the key areas they try to win every week. From the opposing locker room, Brown seemed to agree with that premise.

“You have three phases. You have offense, you have defense and you have special teams. Special teams is the only phase of the game today that we gave ourselves the chance to win,” Brown said. “So to say I am disappointed in how we played would be an understatement. We played really poorly, and it was on a big stage. We are very aware of that, and we played poorly.”

Brown take accountability as the head coach, saying the blame starts with him, as well as putting some of the responsibility on his staff for not having his players prepared to the level needed to overcome the Nittany Lions.

“It starts with me. I am the head coach, and I am responsible for it. Then our staff, we didn’t put our players in positions in some key times, especially in the first half I thought.”

Then Brown put the spotlight on some of his key players without mentioning any specific names.

“Our best players just didn’t play very well. Outside of, I would say, (redshirt freshman linebacker) Josiah Trotter. Just watching the game and having a chance to watch it during halftime, I thought he played at a high level. (Redshirt senior safety) Anthony Wilson is much improved. Then after that, I don’t think any of our players played at a level that is gonna be required to beat a team like that.”

Brown was complimentary of a couple of Penn State’s top defensive players, specifically Abdul Carter, before directing the reasons for the loss back on his team.

“Listen, they have two defensive ends that aren’t good players, they are great players. Especially rushing the passers. Number 11 (Abdul Carter) is a great pass rusher,” Brown said. “But with that being said, we didn’t give ourselves a chance. They did not necessarily beat us, we did not give ourselves a chance.”

West Virginia will get a chance to regroup next week with a home game against a much less intimidating opponent, the University of Albany (an FCS school). But every Penn State fan is hoping the Mountaineers play much better after that as West Virginia travels to Pittsburgh to take on their Backyard Brawl rival, the Pitt Panthers.

Penn State will be home next week for the home opener in Beaver Stadium. The Nittany Lions will host Bowling Green form the MAC for a noon Eastern kickoff on Big Ten Network.

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Most Valuable Player from Penn State’s opening victory vs. West Virginia

With so many worthy candidates, who was Penn State’s MVP of the West Virginia game?

Coming into Penn State’s season opener against West Virginia, there were a lot of people out there who were doubting the Nittany Lions and their offense based on what had occurred last year.

From prominent media members to even some in the fanbase, a lot of the reason for skepticism was centered around [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag].

Well, for at least game, he quieted the doubters.

There was always the possibility that he would grow and turn into the five-star type of player he was considered to be coming out of high school, and with new offensive coordinator [autotag]Andy Kotelnicki[/autotag] at the helm, this was his opportunity to prove he can be a high-level quarterback.

Allar was the catalyst for Penn State’s dominant 34-12 victory over West Virginia.

Because of that, he’s our most valuable player from Saturday.

Not only was he efficient, finish the game 11-17 for a 64.7 percent completion percentage, but he also showed his newfound willingness to push the ball down the field by throwing for 216 yards that was filled with multiple explosive plays.

Those are going to be the highlights, and rightfully so considering what was taking place last season, but he did a bunch of little things that made him look like a completely different player than the version from 2023-24.

When the pocket collapsed on him or if there wasn’t a receiver immediately open, Allar didn’t panic. Instead, he moved shifted around his offensive line to buy some more time, or he smartly decided to tuck the ball and run.

He finished with 44 rushing yards on six attempts, some of that coming on pivotal third downs.

Allar looked more mature, confident, and ready to lead this offense, a major component that was missing from his game, and the team as a whole, last season.

Again, how he played on Saturday was always something that was possible, especially when remembering what he did to West Virginia in the opener just last year.

It’s the consistency that was missing for Allar previously, but if this is the new version Penn State is getting at the quarterback position for the entire season, then they will be a College Football Playoff team for the first time, and this won’t be the last time their star quarterback wins the game’s MVP award.

James Franklin on big pass plays: ‘Ducks accepted, spirals preferred”

James Franklin shared his thoughts on the big play at the end of the first half at West Virginia.

Penn State came into the 2024 season wanting and needing to get more explosiveness out of the offense and passing game. It was only one game to start the season, but the new offense being managed by [autotag]Andy Kotelnicki[/autotag] delivered in a season-opening win at West Virginia.

In all, Penn State had 15 plays that gained 15 yards or more either on the ground or through the air (the 15 plays combined for 346 yards of offense). [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] broke loose for two runs of 40 yards, including one that went for a touchdown to open the second half.

But the biggest game changers came through the air, including [autotag]Omari Evans[/autotag] coming down with a football over the middle of the field late in the first half. Penn State looked like they were going to run out the final seconds late in the first half after West Virginia cut the lead to 13-6 with a field goal. After handing off to Singleton for a short gain, Penn State rushed the offense back to the line of scrimmage and [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] unloaded a deep ball down the field in an attempt to catch West Virginia napping or grasping for a breather. The pass was a bit of a floater, but it worked and was followed up by a dart from Allar to [autotag]Harrison Wallace III[/autotag] for his second touchdown of the half (Wallace scored on a long pass play earlier in the second quarter too).

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“I thought Omari (Evans) coming back and making a play on that was huge,” Penn State head coach [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] said in his postgame press conference following the 34-12 victory. “I think I said at halftime, ‘ducks accepted, spirals preferred’. I’ve chucked a bunch of those ducks up myself.”

Ducks accepted, spirals preferred. That’s a good way of looking at it. The timing of the deep pass caught by Evans is worth considering as well. It was a low-risk, high-reward situation for Penn State.

Had the ball been picked off by West Virginia, as floaters like that play in particular are most vulnerable to be, it might have been a low-risk, high reward situation West Virginia would have had roughly 10 seconds deep on their side of the field to try a Hail Mary play of their own, or simply take a knee and go to halftime down only 13-6.

But Penn State seized the moment and took a chance rolling the dice once more with a shot to the end zone. This time with a preferred spiral.

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James Franklin says Penn State was prepared for long weather delay

James Franklin’s valuable lesson in 2017 paid off in a road win at West Virginia.

Not only did Penn State have to prepare for a road trip against a good opponent to start the season in Week 1 of the college football season, but the Nittany Lions also had to power through a longer-than-usual halftime break. That is because nasty thunderstorms blew through Morgantown, West Virginia as Penn State and West Virginia were looking to come out to start the second half of their game. Fortunately for Penn State, [autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] had his team prepared for such a situation.

Franklin drew on previous experience to be ready for a two-hour weather delay in preparing for Penn State’s trip to West Virginia. In 2017, Penn State was stuck in a long weather delay in a road game at Michigan State. The Lions were not prepared to get through a long delay and continue playing the game, and it showed as Penn State ended up losing in an upset to Michigan State.

If not for that experience, Penn State could have suffered a similar result.

“Obviously after that situation, we kind of put in all types of plans and policies to be aware of,” Franklin said in his postgame comments following a 34-12 victory over West Virginia, referring to that 2017 game at Michigan State. “And it also helped that before coming here, we knew this was a possibility.”

The biggest thing Penn State was prepared for this time once getting a sense of the potential weather situation? Keeping the team fed.

“It’s hard to go to Chick-fil-A at closing time and ask them to stay open and come up with an order for a football team,” Franklin explained. “That’s what happened in East Lansing with Monica, our police officer, going to do that for us. So this was obviously a much better situation.”

Franklin went on to suggest that being the road team makes a long delay even more challenging.

“It’s still challenging when you’re the visiting team, because you’re stuck in a very small locker room. That’s not a critique on West Virginia. It’s like that everywhere,” Franklin said. “And they have all their facilities to be able to use. So there’s some real challenges that come with that.”

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The longer the delay wore on, the more creative Franklin and his staff had to get. The solution? Make space for your team using the tunnel outside of the locker room.

“I think you guys saw we created, out here in the tunnel, some more space. I thought that was helpful as well,” Franklin said. “And then we just had plenty of food. Again, because we knew that this was a possibility, we were able to get ahead of it from that standpoint. So I thought that was a positive.”

Franklin added the team benefitted by having the use of iPads to review game film. In the two hour span, a lot of film breakdown and review could be done, and that gave the coordinators more time to make adjustments. Penn State’s adjustments just seemed to work better than West Virginia’s.

It also might be a complete coincidence, but after the second half eventually started, multiple West Virginia players had to be helped off the field. Was it better conditioning on the Penn State sideline and locker room as well? Or was that just a coincidence? It may be worth wondering as well.

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Best photos from Penn State’s season-opening win at West Virginia

Here are some of the best photos from Penn State’s dominant road win at West Virginia.

It may have taken close to six hours to get the job done, thanks to a lengthy weather delay, but Penn State’s season-opening victory over West Virginia was more than worth the wait. Both new coordinators had their units prepared for a tough test against the Mountaineers, who had a surprisingly good season a year ago. With contributions from all over the roster, Penn State celebrated a 34-12 victory to start the year on the right foot.

When it wasn’t raining, it sure looked like a beautiful day in West Virginia, but only Penn State fans were heading home with smiles on their faces this time around. This was Penn State’s first visit to Milan Puskar Stadium since 1992. Luckily for West Virginia, there are no future plans for a return visit by the Nittany Lions.

Here are some of the best photos from Penn State’s season-opening road win from Morgantown.

Not even Mother Nature can slow down No. 9 Penn State in 34-12 win over West Virginia

Penn State starts off the 2024 season with a win with help from the entire roster.

Open on the road? No problem. Overcome a two-hour weather delay? No sweat.

Not even Mother Nature could slow down the momentum Penn State established in a season-opening road win at West Virginia on Saturday. No. 9 Penn State (no. 8 in AP top 25) turned in a dominant performance to leave Morgantown, West Virginia with a 34-12 victory over the Mountaineers and it included contributions from all around the roster.

After a scoreless first quarter, Penn State took command in the second quarter with a 20-point burst before halftime. [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] connected for three touchdown passes, including a pair to [autotag]Harrison Wallace III[/autotag]; [autotag]Kaytron Allen[/autotag] scored the other in the second quarter. The first half was highlighted by the Penn State defense seemingly getting the wrong end of a botched instant replay after an apparent fourth-down stop, but holding West Virginia to a field goal in the final minute of the half to cut Penn State’s lead to 13-6.

But the offense turned it around with a big pass from Allar to Omari Evans and the second of Wallace’s touchdown catches seconds later to take a commanding 20-6 lead into halftime. [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] found an opening and exp[osed it with a 40-yard run for a touchdown to open the third quarter to give Penn State a 27-6 lead.

It was not until early in the fourth quarter when West Virginia scored a touchdown. Of course, this may have been another example of poor officiating and questionable replay procedures as the Fox cameras seemingly showed that West Virginia running back CJ Donaldson appeared to be short of the end zone before getting the ball across the line. The play stood with no challenge and [autotag]Abdul Carter[/autotag] and [autotag]Tony Rojas[/autotag] met in the backfield to disrupt a two-point conversion attempt by West Virginia quarterback Garrett Greene.

And then the waiting game began. Severe thunderstorms rolled through the area during halftime and delayed the start of the second half by a little more than two hours. Once play eventually resumed, Penn State’s offense picked up right where it left off with a touchdown on the opening drive of the half. Penn State would respond later in the fourth quarter with a final knockout blow when [autotag]Beau Pribula[/autotag] connected with tight end [autotag]Tyler Warren[/autotag] for a score minutes later.

Allar passed for 216 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for 44 yards on six carries, a number of them picking up first downs along the way. Wallace III led the receivers with 117 yards and two touchdowns. Warren ended the day with three catches for 30 yards and a score, catching all three of the passes targeted for him in the game.

After having just one 100-yard game a season ago, and having to wait until the final game of the regular season, [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] started the year on the right foot with 114 rushing yards. Singleton had a pair of 40-yard runs in the game.

Carter’s defensive stats won’t impress anyone checking just the box score, but he drew some double-team coverage on multiple occasions, usually allowing someone else on the defensive line to make a big play. Rojas ended the game with 1.5 sacks and [autotag]Kevin Winston[/autotag] led the Nittany Lions with 12 total tackles. [autotag]Jaylen Reed[/autotag] broke up two passes and forced a fumble.

Penn State completed the two-game home-and-home series with West Virginia, continuing its winning tradition against their former longtime regional rival. Penn State is now 50-9-2 all-time against West Virginia. Unfortunately, there are no additional future games on the books between these two schools at this time.

Next up for Penn State is the home opener next Saturday. Penn State will host Bowling Green from the MAC for another noon kickoff in Week 2. Bowling Green is coming off a 41-17 victory over Fordham to open its season. Next week’s game will air on Big Ten Network.

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Penn State-West Virginia weather updates: Football game resumes after lengthy delay

Penn State and West Virginia were delayed for over two hours before continuing the second half.

It would not be the start of a college football season without some weather delays. Penn State has not experienced too many weather delays over the years but the season opener at West Virginia has been paused for an extended halftime as a result of storms moving through the region.

While the teams were in their respective locker rooms getting ready for the start of the second half of their season opener, West Virginia announced the game was put in a weather delay. Fans were asked to evacuate the stadium and seek shelter while the game took an extended break from the action.

Bad weather was a possibility, but this storm seemingly crept up on the game pretty quickly during halftime,

The last time Penn State was in a weather delay was in 2017. That was a game Penn State fans would like to forget as Penn State was upset by Michigan State following a delay of three hours and 22 minutes. That was also a noon kickoff and did not end until 7:03 p.m.

Penn State at West Virginia football weather updates

This section will be updated. All times Eastern.

4:19 p.m. The teams are back on the field and warming up for the second half… finally!

http://twitter.com/LAlenstein/status/1829976642879463462

4:00 p.m. West Virginia says the plan now is to open the gates at 4:08 p.m. and restart the game at 4:23 p.m.

3:46 p.m. Penn State players looking for space out of the locker room wherever they can find it.

http://twitter.com/PSUPoorman/status/1829964723527303433

3:40 p.m. We have a start time! Oh wait, maybe not.

http://twitter.com/audsnyder4/status/1829967279041196285

3:30 p.m. A meeting to discuss the resumption of the game is expected to be happening right now. But lightning remains in the area, so it may still be a while.

http://twitter.com/audsnyder4/status/1829963511084249446

2:54 p.m. You might want to grab a Snickers. Or dinner. We could be waiting a while.

http://twitter.com/NittanyCentral/status/1829949822222418363

2:50 p.m. Milan Puskar Stadium is flooding!

https://twitter.com/allieberube/status/1829952312225501504

2:47 p.m. The view from the pressbox is intimidating, courtesy of Lions24’s Mark Brennan.

2:06 p.m. The game is officially in a weather delay before the start of the second half.

http://twitter.com/PennStFBComms/status/1829943848925114799

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Penn State created opportunity to make up for blown call

Penn State executed a 22-second touchdown drive just before halftime at West Virginia.

Sometimes the college football gods are looking after you. Maybe Penn Stae didn’t need the assistance of a little divine intervention, but the Nittany Lions managed to create an opportunity to make up for a bad instant replay that went against them.

Late in the first half, West Virginia was rewarded with a first down on a 4th and 1. Instant replays appeared to show the defense actually stuffed West Virginia a yard shy of the first down markers, but the official ruling was the first down call on the field would stand. A few plays later, West Virginia kicked a field goal to cut Penn State’s lead to 13-6 with under a minute to play before halftime.

After initially looking like the Nittany Lions would simply run the clock with a handoff to [autotag]Nick Singleton[/autotag] that went almost nowhere on the first play of the ensuing drive, Penn State hurried to the line and let [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] take a shot deep down the field. [autotag]Omari Evans[/autotag], with the benefit of the refs not flagging him for a push-off of the defender, got his hands on the ball and gave Penn State an opportunity for a score just before halftime.

http://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1829938176032387278

At worst, Penn State would be able to take a shot at a field goal just before halftime to get those three points back. But with 10 seconds remaining, enough time was available to take a shot to the end zone. And for the second time of the game, Allar connected with [autotag]Harrison Wallace III[/autotag] for a touchdown. While Wallace’s first touchdown was highlighted by speed in the open field, his second touchdown was an impressive feat in the end zone.

https://twitter.com/CFBONFOX/status/1829938922320810182

So not only did Penn State erase the gift of three points for West Virginia moments earlier, but the Nittany Lions tacked on four additional points as a result. Give credit to offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki for creating this opportunity and potentially catching West Virginia napping a bit toward the end of the half.

Penn State is set to get the football to start the second half of the game, but a weather delay put the resumption of the contest on hold for an undetermined amount of time.

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Penn State’s second half at West Virginia delayed by weather

Penn State will have to wait out a weather delay before starting the second half in Morgantown.

After a strong finish to the first half at West Virginia, Penn State was hoping to get the second half started with some momentum carrying over. Unfortunately, inclement weather in Morgantown had some other plans.

The start of the second half between Penn State and West Virginia was delayed due to storms moving through the area. Obviously, the safety of the teams and fans is the most important concern, but it does stink that Penn State will have to wait a little bit longer to get on the field after an explosive end to the first half.

https://twitter.com/WVUfootball/status/1829945459063882104

Penn State put up 200 yards of offense in the second quarter alone, including a big strike from Drew Allar to Omari Evans in the final minute of the half to help set up the second touchdown grab of the day by Harrison Wallace III (his first one was pretty good too). Penn State took a 20-6 lead into halftime and is set to get the football to start the second half, whenever that may be.

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Penn State’s first touchdown of the Andy Kotelnicki era was a big one!

Drew Allar connected with Harrison Wallace for a long touchdown, the first of 2024!

Penn State’s offense got off to a bit of a rough start in the first quarter of the season on the road at West Virginia, but the second quarter started off with a big explosive play the program had been hoping to see in 2024. [autotag]Drew Allar[/autotag] connected over the middle with [autotag]Harrison Wallace[/autotag] on the first play of the second quarter, and Wallace went the distance for a 50-yard touchdown.

Wallace was one of the wide receivers Penn State is hoping to see more out of this season, and he certainly got things off on the right foot in the season opener. Wallace was slowed by some injuries last season, but he has the potential to be a key part of the offense as long as he stays on the field making plays like this.

https://twitter.com/cfbonfox/status/1829923457926074594?s=46&t=GPFWfOop7onmolozjiWcDg

Fox play-by-play announcer went in on the “Coach K” reference to new Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Kotelnicki was tasked with finding ways to get more production out of the offense. After a couple of tough possessions to open up the game, maybe this helps get things rolling for the Nittany Lions.

Penn State opted to go for a two-point conversion following the touchdown, but came up incomplete on a pass attempt, keeping the lead at 6-0.

Penn State’s defense has also gotten off to a good start under the direction of Tom Allen. The defense forced a turnover and a second forced fumble and came up with a big 4th-and-short stop to keep West Virginia off the board.

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