5 Storylines to Follow as Penn State Takes on West Virginia

It’s finally here. Penn State no longer has to wonder how the season is going to go; it can just go out there and find out. A Saturday night clash with West Virginia is a nice way to ease into the long grind of the 2023 campaign and with beautiful weather in the forecast and plenty of time for fans to get ready for the game it should be a picture perfect weekend to open a college football season. That being said, there are still questions to be answered and things to keep an eye on. Here are five storylines to follow.

Settling In: You could really break this one down into its whole entire story, but it will be interesting to see how all of the question marks start to find their answers on Saturday night. How does Drew Allar look in his first start? How does an uncertain kicking game do under the lights? How does the secondary look? How does a new crop of receivers step up in the moment? All of these things will be crucial to the success of Penn State’s season and all of them will need to figure out a way to settle in during a primetime showing. Nothing says welcome to the big time quite like a Beaver Stadium night game. None of these questions need to have perfect answers by the end of the fourth quarter – albeit good kicking has never hurt anyone – but positive steps forward would give James Franklin and his staff a bit of Week 1 confidence, even if West Virginia isn’t exactly Ohio State.

TFL: The edges of Penn State’s defensive line might be among the best in the nation but there is some question of what the Nittany Lions will be able to do on the interior this year and what that could mean for the run defense. Tackles for a loss from the interior of the line aren’t always easy to come by, but a few here or there coupled with some nice stops at the line of scrimmage would be a good first foray into feeling better about that group. Deion Barnes’ first real test as an assistant will be keeping the interior of the line up to snuff, can he do it? One game isn’t the answer to that question, but it’s the first step towards one.

Backbone: For all the excitement around what Drew Allar can do with his arm, in some ways the overall success of Penn State’s season will come down to how well the Nittany Lions can run the ball and how often those runs are for positive yardage. While there’s little question Penn State would take Saquon Barkley back in an instant, the offensive line he had – and the emphasis defenses put on stopping Barkley – led to more than a few tackles for a loss. The key for Penn State this year with a better line and two talented running backs in Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen isn’t just the home run potential but the ability to rush for 4-6 yards a carry on any given down. If you assume Penn State is going to ease Allar into the game for the first few weeks, the running game will be Penn State bread and butter. Heck that might even be the case once Allar is fully into the playbook.

Grinding Through Rust: There’s a decent chance that with all the new moving parts on offense and general first game blues that this won’t be the kind of Penn State win that looks great even if the final is 35-10. It might not always be sexy but seeing how Penn State responds to opening game frustration might be a sneak peek into how this bunch handles adversity all year long. You can only take so much away from early season games, but approach is never something to overlook. Vibe checks are key all year long, Saturday night will be the first one as this group knocks the rust – or that new car smell – off.

Reintroduction: For the relatively medium length list of new faces and new guys in new roles, there are plenty of established names on this team. Can they remind you of who they are? Can Abdul Carter post some numbers in his first All-American potential outing of the year? Can Kalen King remind people that he might just be better than Joey Porter Jr? Can Nick Singleton be the fastest guy in a room of over 100,000? For all the talk about new faces, it’s never a bad idea to make sure all the old ones are still who you remember them to be. Not much worry with this bunch, but being reminded how damn good some of these guys are is never a bad way for a team to start the season.