PSU vs WVU: Is Penn State in TROUBLE Against West Virginia?

welcome back to college football addiction I've got kozz from koz's corner on we're going to talk about what I just told him before we got on here is maybe the most sneakily underrated game of week one uh Penn State travels to West Virginia Koz how you doing man doing good TJ how about you man I'm good I'm good um we got a little taste of college football last week it wasn't necessarily a pleasurable taste for me but we did get a little bit last week we're just days away from the start uh the real start the the uh Labor Day weekend start of college football yeah let's ignore what happened last weekend just say this is the start let's pretend it didn't happen right yeah yeah yeah it's easier that way it's it's a lot easier for you so um man a massive game this weekend for both these programs Penn State you know can you can you win the big one you you obviously can take care of the teams that you're supposed to be but um Can can you win that big one that that you need to win to kind of prove your Elite um they haven't been able to do that under James Franklin uh most more often than not um and so they've always been kind of considered a tier below the the big boys of Ohio State and Michigan which you know most programs in the country are I get that and then West Virginia right trying to capitalize on on an unexpectedly good year last year where maybe they were a bit ahead of schedule and and trying to take that to the next level whether that's competing for the Big 12 or trying to find find themselves in some playoff conversations late in the year and so a really big one to get started I love when teams play these big games obviously you think about Miami Florida is a big one for other reasons but Clemson Georgia a really big one and Notre Dame Texas A&M a really big one but I love when teams kind of put their money where their mouth is and play this early one before uh to start the game who is the game bigger for this weekend I think the for me that's an easy answer and it's Penn State I mean West Virginia has enough not really anything to lose in my opinion this is a huge it's a huge game don't get me wrong and Penn State is a team that West Virginia hasn't beaten in gosh I don't know well I think it's 30 years I think but cuz well but in all fness we haven't played them but that being said it's a huge you know it's an old rival that Penn State has pretty much owned uh and for that reason I think they have the pressure on him plus when you look at you know Penn State is picked by almost everybody to make it to the college football playoff right if they lose this game the road to the college football playoff gets that much harder because then you have to beat you may have to beat Ohio State you may have to beat uh you know Oregon the other good good big team teams on your schedule uh so the road gets harder for me for them uh so anyway that being said I think it means a lot more to Penn State because West Virginia can still it's not a big 12 game for them and West Virginia's best chance of getting in the playoff is to win the Big 12 and that would still be on the table even if they lose to Penn State so a little more pressure on Penn State in this game and not only you have more pressure you're having to go on the road and I can only imagine what Morgan to is going to be like before the game during the game and then maybe win or loss but certainly after a win I can only imagine what it would be like after the game but um having to go on the road and do this you know game one lot of pressure noon kick maybe the noon kick helps a little bit not playing at night but man I I certainly think that that ratches the pressure up a little bit is is playing this on the road yeah I would think so and I know Penn State fans you know I know they're not look they play in one of the biggest stadiums in America their Stadium's loud I get it they say they're not scared to come into Morgantown but I'm telling you 6 West Virginia 60,000 fans can be as Lou or louder than a lot of stadiums that have 100,000 yeah when everybody's Juiced up when everybody's you know this excited over a game and and this involved it's gonna be a tough place to play I'm telling you I don't I think they might be underestimating Morgantown on on a on a Saturday when it's full and when it's loud yeah and and and you know West Virginia has revenge on their mind too which is going to make it even harder yeah I remember uh man I remember some of the those old I mean I'm I say dating myself but you know still not that old but I uh I remember some of those old USF West Virginia games living here in Tampa and you know we' go up there and I mean Noel Divine and some of those guys some of those greats on West Virginia and man they'd be calling timeouts like in the first quarter because they couldn't hear anything like it was it was insane and uh you know USF used to play against everybody back then Florida Florida State my you know Miami and and so yeah like West Virginia can certainly turn it up to a different level um Drew Aller a lot of questions around him and what what he's going to look like this year there's I I think there's a lot of quarterbacks in the country that are like very heavily debated you know what they look like what they want you know dju was one at Florida State uh shador Sanders is is another one that I think is up there but man people got a lot of takes on Drew Aller you know one way or the other of what he's gonna look like um Drew Aller versus Garrett green do you have a lean and you know I don't if you want to keep the uh the the blue and gold glasses on I'm good with it but do you have a lean on who will have a better game or who you kind of expect to be a little bit better this weekend I'm going to have to lean Garr green here only because he's at home uh I think D is a good quarterback but you know Garrett's Garrett's an energy guy he feeds off of energy he's obviously a great a great Runner so I think he's going to feed off of that and have a really good game not saying Drew all will have a bad game but I think I think Garrett's going to have the edge there just because it's a home and he'll have the energy of the home crowd behind him what do you think about your defense um going up against him and that pen state offense who showed it times last year they could they could be great but against you know really good defenses they they struggled certainly um but what your thoughts on how the defense will match up against um Aller and that offense yeah I mean it's going to be a tough matchup you know especially those two great running backs they have but I'm confident this West vir defense is much improved from last year I've done a lot of analysis of of the roster this year compared to the roster last year and West Virginia the guy most of the guys West Virginia lost off their team from a year ago I feel like the guys they' brought in from the portal are much much much better so I really like the matchup especially up front I feel like if there's a weakness on Penn State's team it's in two spots wide receiver and potentially some couple spots on their offensive line and I think West Virginia can exploit that so I think West Virginia defense is going to be much better than people think but man it's still going to be a tough battle especially those two great running backs they have so you mentioned the running backs and maybe that leads really well into this it um is that is that is that the uh area or is that the thing about Penn State that worries you the most in this matchup and if it is you kind of already explained that so maybe give me a followup one but if it's not tell me what worries you the most about Penn State this weekend offensively for sure that's what worries me because I'm not sure you I'm not sure you stop those guys you might you might limit their yards but they're going to get some big runs there's just no way around it you just got to try to limit those right and try to force Ben state to throw the ball more but really what worries me is this Penn State Defense that pen State Defense at least on paper is one of the best defenses in in America they're I don't really know there's a weakness I mean they're great at linebacker they're great on the front at least they should be they're great in the secondary and they return a lot of talent from last year's team they obviously are moving Abdul Carter from linebacker to DN you know to take advantage of his pass rushing ability so you know it'll be interesting to see how he adjusts but I expect him to come off the edge like a madman and be really really tough matchup for for that Mountaineer offensive line and and and running backs too who are going to have to get involved in the running game probably probably as far as I or passing game rather as blockers but um so that's you know that's that's what worries me really is that Penn State Defense what uh let's flip it then what uh what gives you the most confidence where do you think that that West Virginia is going to try to exploit Penn State try to take advantage of Penn State what are the maybe the the best path to Victory is man West Virginia was just the elite at this one thing on Saturday I mean it's obviously running the football West Virginia has to run the football they're going to have to G Green in the running game even like I said yes the Penn State Defense is great but West Virginia I think can run the football against anybody now the one question mark is you know they lost Zack Frasier from a year ago and he was a huge piece of that running game be when you have one of the best centers in America it's a lot easier to run behind that guy uh we have confidence that his replacement Brandon Yates is going to be okay there but we don't expect him to be as good as Zack Frasier because they don't make Zack frasers every day right so but if West Virginia's running game can be as good as last year we expect that Garrett has improved the passing G in the passing game we expect the receivers to be better so even if Penn State tries to make West Virginia onedimensional we think that we think West Virginia will be able to complete some passes but at the end of the day West Virginia has got to be able to run the football and I think Garrett green is The X Factor there because it's really hard to stop a quarterback who can run the ball that well when oh by the way you have two great running backs that you have to keep an eye on too so to me it's at the end of the day it's Western running game and can they run the football effectively following up on that do you think that how do you think you match up in the trenches specifically your offensive line their defensive line it's gonna be a battle man I don't know about that one I I I like I like I love our offensive line I do but man that Penn State Defense is just a different animal I mean it's GNA be I don't even know if there's an argument they're probably the best defense Western is gonna play this year yeah uh so I it's going to be a battle I expect this to be a low-scoring game to be honest with you because I think both the I think you know when you look at strength versus strength it's West Virginia's probably West Virginia's o line against their dline and who's going to give right so I I don't know if I can give an edge to anybody on that one I think it's GNA be a very interesting battle I would probably give a slight Edge to Penn State though to be honest and and to take try to take my biased glasses off because I just think they're I think they're Elite on defense and there's no way around that West Virginia is going to have to be creative in the play calling creative schematically they're going to have to make some big plays and they're going to probably have to create some plays through turnovers and maybe even on special teams to win the game in my opinion West Virginia currently our friends over at B us tell us that West Virginia is an eight-point dog so one score kind of people don't really do two conversions so one score kind of over under a 51 and a half you can bet that at bet us.com right now you can use our Link in the description to get 25% deposit bonus on your first three deposits up to $2,000 appreciate B us for their support but um do you have a prediction yet CZ do you do you like you guys to cover do you guys I mean the money line sitting there at 250 as well what do you think ends up happening on Saturday I I took West Virginia to cover um when they were at eight and a half you know eight eight and a half I probably still would have taken them but U not quite confident enough to take West Virginia to win straight up I do think it's going to be a tight game I think it could be a three-point game uh potentially even even within a touchdown maybe but at the end of the day uh I just think you got to give the edge to pen State because I think on paper they're the more talented team and I mean they've got NFL guys all throughout that roster and it's it's just hard to it's hard to go against that man but I did I did take what you need to cover though I do think they cover that eight points because home crowd they're going to be improved from a year ago and and they're going to be a lot of energy but you know Jimmy Jimmy jimmies and Joe's at the end of the day is who wins games and I think Penn State has the edge there slightly so we've already seen one pretty big upset this college football season maybe we'll see another I did a um I did a I did an SEC video where I picked every single SEC game of the year every game that um an SEC team was playing not just the SEC on SEC teams and um I I wrote one out for the Big 10 and then I just been too busy with travel and everything else but I I never released this but I'll go on record and say it now most of the Big 10 games are pretty easy to predict it's you know Oregon's going to win every game Ohio city is going to win every game Michigan's going to win you know like you know the games between those two are a little tougher but all that said I did I took West Virginia here so I never put that out I never Rel or I never recorded that video but when I wrote it I did pick West Virginia maybe that's just the Homer remembering Noel Divine you know and Pat White back from when I was a kid which I didn't like those guys back then but I he we'll take it we'll take it back you know watching back some of those replays I'm like man those guys are really good uh Steve Slayton and man I I I hated those guys when I was those were the good old days yeah but they you know looking back I'm like man I miss those guys so yeah so I'll pick you guys I'll I'll take you guys with the points and uh and shoot put a little sprinkle on that money line so Pat Uh Pat CZ I appreciate you a ton for for jumping on and talking with us where can folks folks find you where can they see more of your work I'm over at kozza corner on YouTube it's uh I cover West Viria Mountaineer football cover the Big 12 I cover conferry a lot on conferry alignment over there so come check it out would appreciate to have more more TJ's crowd over there and also have a website kusas corner.com if you want to read up on stay up to date on Mountaineer Sports and and it's also a way you can reach out to me through email and drop me a drop me a line there cuses corner.com again it's spelled c zsc r.com cool I will link the YouTube you guys can go follow over there again Cruz does a lot on conference re liment as well I know you guys enjoy our conference reignment content so go check him out I again appreciate bet us for their support Cruz I appre appreciate you man good luck this weekend don't burn the city down if you guys win we'll do our best not to see you buddy if you enjoyed this preview we did an episode this morning where we previewed every big college football game from this weekend you can click the video on the screen right now to see the rest of them we appreciate you guys for your support make sure you hit that subscribe button for college football addiction all year long