MORGANTOWN, W.VA. — Penn State’s football game here Saturday at Milan Puskar Stadium started at 12:06 p.m. It was sunny. The winds were 6 mph from the southwest. It was 85 degrees. Did I say it was sunny?
The game ended at 5:59. It was muggy, cloudy and all of 74 degrees. But Penn State was hot.
In the 5 hours and 53 minutes in between, Penn State unveiled its Beau- and Coach K-improved offense, made WVU’s offense take safety with the Lightning & Thunder duo of J Reed and KJ Winston, and saw quarterback Drew Allar take a run — literally — at being a five-star field general in Year 2.
A 2-hour, 19-minute delay for rain and thunderstorms be damned.
In a few ways The Long Wait In West Virginia was like Penn State’s infamous 2017 game at Michigan State. Mostly, though, about clearing the stadium and biding time in the locker room. But not many ways. Penn State lost that one. Sparty was pretty good. And when the rain finally stopped, the Mountaineers clearly were not.
The Nittany Lions led 20-6 at the half. Then the rains came. But Penn State was definitely not all wet.
“We knew at halftime that we were not done yet,” Winston said. “Everybody was speaking positive, taking care of their bodies. We put the [air compression] boots on and took care of our legs. I made sure I stayed hot. We have this other thing called Fireflies to make sure our bodies were ready to go.” Firefly is a wearable recovery device that increases blood flow, speeding up full body recovery.
The last — and only — time Winston had faced a delay like Saturday’s was when he was playing little league football. It was not a good experience: “It was raining outside and we had to go into a shed for, like, two hours.”
That Michigan State experience was just as bad for Penn State back on Nov. 4, 2017, at Spartan Stadium. A delay for rain and lightning in the second quarter that day lasted 202 minutes. No. 7 Penn State left the field ahead, 14-7, vs. No. 24 Sparty. But when all was said and done, Michigan State won 27-24 on a last-second 34-yard field. Kickoff that day was 12:05 p.m. and the game ended at 7:03 p.m. All told, it was 6 hours and 58 minutes of mostly hell.
“After that situation,” Penn State coach James Franklin said after the win on Saturday, “we put in all types of plans and policies to be aware of that. It also helped that before coming here, we knew this was a possibility.
“…This was obviously a much better situation. 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 of West Virginia; it’s like that everywhere. And they have all their facilities to use. We created some more space out in the tunnel. That was helpful as well. And we had plenty of food, because we knew this was a possibility. Having the iPads was also a huge advantage.”
On Saturday, despite the 139-minute stoppage of play, the Nittany Lions’ day was almost heaven. By halftime, in fact, the 2024 season opener for both teams was essentially over.
When played resumed at 4:23 p.m., over half of the sell-out crowd of 62,084 returned. But the majority of the student body at West Virginia University — where the two most popular degrees are in registered nursing and sports, kinesiology and phys ed — was smart enough to not matriculate back to the stadium.
Maybe they knew: The Nittany Lion offense was just getting started. The Andy Kotelnicki Experiment had begun. The mad scientist from Litchfield, Minnesota (pop. 6,602) had already made Franklin and fans forget Mike…er, huh…
In just 10 minutes and 9 seconds of offense in the first two quarters of 2024, Penn State offense had eight explosive plays vs. West Virginia: six passes (17, 18, 18, 20, 50 and 55 yards) and two runs (11, 15). And the Nittany Lions’ scoring drives in that short span were long, fast and furious: 17 plays for 228 yards in less than six minutes. In total. The last drive of the first half — a beauty that included a 55-yard pass from Allar to Omari Evans, followed by an 18-yard scoring fade to Trey Wallace — took all of three plays and 26 seconds.
The trend continued all game long. Overall, the PSU offense had:
• 15 explosive plays. Seven were passes (17, 18, 18, 19, 20, 50, 55). Eight were runs (10, 10, 11, 11, 12, 15, 40, 40). Nick Singleton had two 40-yard runs, one of them for a TD.
• Four drives of 70 yards or more (70, 71, 73, 78).
• A(nother) banner day against West Virginia by Allar. He looked composed, threw well and ran six times for 44 yards. Allar had runs of 10, 10 and 15 yards. As a runner, he looked, and performed, better with his legs than utility man Beau Pribula, who had three runs for 25 yards and a 19-yard TD toss to tight end Tyler Warren. Here’s what Allar has done in consecutive season openers as a passer vs. West Virginia:
2024 — 11 of 17 for 216 yards, 3 TDs, zero picks
2023 — 21 of 29 for 325 yards, 3 TDs, zero picks
On defense, in Tom Allen’s debut as Penn State’s defensive coordinator and the introduction of the Lion hybrid position — played to near-perfection by Jaylen Reed — Penn State held the Mountaineers to 256 yards and just 4-of-14 on third down.
Winston led the Nittany Lion defense with 12 tackles (7 solo) and a forced fumble. Reed had nine tackles, one for an 11-yard loss, a fumble recovery and two pass break-ups.
So, now Penn State is 1-0 and will not leave Happy Valley for 40 consecutive days. West Virginia was a good start for a team whose goal is the College Football Playoff. At the very least.
A CELEBRATION
As impressive as the victory was, there are still better ways to spend your 40th birthday. But don’t tell that to Sean Fitz @SeanFitzOn3 — the publisher of Blue White Illustrated on On3 and a true insider on the beat. He turned the Big 4-oh on Saturday.
Nice to see that it didn’t rain on his parade.
