West Virginia is READY for Penn State, can the Nittany Lions respond? 🤔 | Always College Football

Penn State at West Virginia noon Eastern Time on Fox these teams played every year from 1947 to 1992 that's when Penn State joined the Big 10 and they no longer played they won the game last year Penn State did 38-5 that was the opener that was their first matchup since that 1992 season and Penn State holds the all-time series lead 499 and two six of those nine losses though have come in Morgantown the three questions number one can Andy codal Nikki the OC of Penn State get The Passing attack going look the biggest question mark around the N Lions is the play of Drew Aller and while he was 10- two in the regular season and they made it to the Peach Bowl there was a lot of people that were kind of underwhelmed with what they saw from a guy who came to State College with five stars next to his name and expecting to take this offense at the next level he completed sub 60% of his passes that was 88th he threw 6.8 yards an attempt that was 92nd he averaged 7.1 air yards per attempt so his average ball traveled just 7.1 yards downfield that was 109th part of that though is I think that there were some question marks at wide receiver last year and there shouldn't be that way this year Harrison Wallace set to be a a wide receiver that is an alpha dog go-to guy thought he might be that guy last year but he got a little banged up and just never really got going you also have lean Clifford who's been mentioned is a guy much like Wallace that has had a great fall Camp so hopefully you can't play quarterback by yourself and I'm pretty confident that Penn State will continue to be able to run the football but the passing attack has to take the next step and that's I think part of the reason why Andy cotal Nikki was hired from Kansas in the off season question number two can West Virginia run the football for the first time since 2007 West Virginia returns their top quarterback their top running back and their top wide receivers uh well the quarter back plus the two running backs that are both back all went for more than 750 yards rushing last year that's Garrick green a quarterback CJ Donaldson Jem white who are very much thunder in Donaldson lightning in white power with Donaldson speed with white this is a group that has a lot of ability in their Specialist Group because they can situationally use Donaldson they can situationally use white and in rare instances you can have both in the field at the same time but let's be real those guys can't run if you can't get them blocked and West Virginia has an offensive line with over 4,000 snaps played at the FBS level in 2023 milm 754 snaps last year Nick Malone 418 snaps last year they're going to start at The Tackle Spot milm by the way one of the best left tackles in the sport remac who had nearly 700 snaps jqu hubard 432 snaps they're going to start started guard and then Brandon Yates who had 795 snaps at Center last year so you look at just kind of where they're at this is one of the top offensive lines in the sport as far as experience is concerned and guess what they're going against one of the top Rush defenses in the country from a year ago they give up just 76 yards a game 2.3 yards a carry 14% of their opponent's rushing plays were tackled behind the line of scrimmage that's how good Penn State was upfront defensively and a lot of those guys are back this year especially at defensive tackle and then question number three if it's close can West Virginia get it to the finish line now the Mountaineers are a pretty remarkable eight- two 8-2 in their last 10 games that were decided by one score or less so by eight points or less they're 8-2 now some people will say Well they're seven and three because they factor in an overtime game in which they actually lost by double digits but it was overtime because their offensive possession resulted in points for the other team so take that with the grain they got it to overtime I count an overtime loss as a single digit loss so they're eight- two in games that were decided by eight points or fewer they were three in one in those games last year beat Texas Tech TCU and Baylor their lone loss was the miraculous game against Houston where Houston hit a Hail Mary at the end of the game and the year before that they beat Oklahoma State Oklahoma and Baylor with the lone loss coming on kind of a miraculous win for pit so I look at it and if it's close West Virginia has been really good in these close games can they do the little things there in the fourth quarter to potentially give them a w some Trends in the game Penn State is nine and one against the spread and straight up and its last 10 games is a road favorite having covered or won each of the last eight the only non cover during that span was an outright loss to Michigan State in 21 I'm taking Penn State but I expect it to be a slow low-scoring grinded out type of game I think both teams are good along the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively and I think West Virginia is better on defense than people give them credit so I think they'll keep Penn State somewhat bottled up but ultimately Penn State just has more weapons and more depth they'll make a big play or two that will give them the victory but I expect it to be insanely close and I expect it to be pretty low scoring