STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Penn State went through practice Wednesday night using footballs doused in water. Wet ball work was on the agenda ahead of No. 8 Penn State’s season opener Saturday at noon at West Virginia, and for good reason.
Season openers are always full of surprises, and the potential of a heavy thunderstorm and showers to impact this one meant Penn State wasn’t taking any chances. James Franklin’s 11th season at Penn State and the first year of the expanded College Football Playoff is finally here. Penn State is 49-9-2 against West Virginia all time, and while the Nittany Lions won the most recent meeting in last year’s season opener 38-15, much has changed for both teams since then.
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Does this offense click right away?
Don’t expect it to be perfect, but after months of hearing and writing about Andy Kotelnicki’s offense and not yet seeing it — even reporters saw zero 11-on-11 reps this preseason — it’s showtime. Kotelnicki, hired in December from Kansas after years spent working with Lance Leipold, is known for his creativity. Kansas had one of the most explosive offenses in the country last season, and while Penn State’s roster is loaded with talent including third-year quarterback Drew Allar, third-year running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and senior tight end Tyler Warren, can this group click right away?
It’s presented challenges to the Penn State defense this preseason.
“They do a lot of motion,” defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton said. “They might bring one or two extra tackles on one side of the ball just to mess with your eyes. … Coach K has definitely brought a different offense in.”
Expect the strengths of this offense to be the running backs and tight ends. Penn State could be without No. 2 tight end Khalil Dinkins this week. Franklin said they expect redshirt freshman Andrew Rappleyea and true freshman Luke Reynolds to play Saturday. That’s a big spot for two young players. Franklin even hinted at the possibility of Penn State getting Allen and Singleton on the field at the same time this season.
Kotelnicki said several times this offseason he’s committed to getting backup quarterback Beau Pribula on the field because Pribula’s elite athleticism makes him one of the offense’s 11 best players. How often, if at all, does that happen in Week 1?
With all the creative possibilities, coupled with three new starters along the offensive line (Drew Shelton at left tackle, Nick Dawkins at center and Nolan Rucci or Anthony Donkoh at right tackle), can this group get and stay on the same page while dealing with crowd noise and maybe some adverse weather? We’re going to learn a lot Saturday.
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Will one wide receiver take a noticeable step forward?
It’s the question that lingered all last year and all offseason. Is there a No. 1 wide receiver on this roster, and whether there is or is not, just how deep is this group?
Harrison Wallace III, Liam Clifford and Julian Fleming are the most likely options to emerge right away. Wallace and Clifford were consistently praised by the staff this preseason while Fleming had a slow start to the preseason — but then was headed in the right direction after the midway point of preseason practices, per Kotelnicki. Kaden Saunders has been banged up this preseason but was on the practice field Wednesday night. His availability will be worth monitoring closer to kick and could impact special teams, where he’s the punt returner.
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Franklin highlighted Omari Evans, who emerged late last season after the coordinator change, this week. The head coach said Evans, the converted high school quarterback, had a strong preseason.
“There’s a lot of excitement within the program that he’s ready and can make a few big catches and a few big plays early,” Franklin said. “He’s a guy that could be talked about very differently at the end of the season compared to maybe conversations that are going on right now.”
How snaps are distributed in this receiving corps this week will give us the best indicator of who the staff trusts and who has impressed most.
Can Penn State’s new-look defense slow down the run?
Before West Virginia game prep officially began, defensive line coach Deion Barnes reminded his players how often West Virginia ran the ball against them last year. Dual-threat quarterback Garrett Greene is back, and last year the Mountaineers ran the ball 40 times for 146 yards against PSU. Greene accounted for 15 of those rushes and 71 yards. West Virginia should again be built around running the ball.
Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Allen replaces Manny Diaz, who left in the winter to become the head coach at Duke. On paper, this defense should be as talented as the one Penn State had last season when it had one of the most suffocating defenses in the country.
Abdul Carter is going to play defensive end and linebacker. Dennis-Sutton, now a full-time starter after playing starter-type reps last season, should also be one of the better ends in the country. But, one of the most noticeable differences, and the detail that might make this defense even better, is how much stronger it could be up the middle.
Franklin spoke many times over the last few years about needing the defensive tackles to be bigger. That’s taken shape now with Dvon J-Thomas listed at 305 pounds and Zane Durant at 288. Alonzo Ford Jr. is 319 pounds and Hakeem Beamon is 296.
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Middle linebacker Kobe King, after starting all last season, is now a captain. He said he’s so comfortable running this defense that he’s having full-blown conversations on the field with his teammates, making sure they all know where they’re supposed to be. Again, this should bode well for this defense being strong up the middle and sound against the run.
“This is the most detailed — not that we weren’t detailed before — but this is the most detailed and dialed in we’ve been since I’ve been here,” King said.
Keep in mind
Penn State hasn’t publicly named a starting kicker. Look for Gabe Nwosu to handle kickoffs and Riley Thompson to punt. At kicker, it’s been a three-way competition between Sander Sahaydak, Chase Meyer and Ryan Barker, all of whom have been within a percentage point of each other on field goals this preseason, Franklin said. What’s the range this staff feels comfortable with for any of the three? It’s also unclear if they will rely on one player for field goals or divvy up responsibilities like we’ve seen before, with one player handling longer field goals and the other doing shorter field goals and extra points.
Don’t forget about
The changes to in-game communication. It’s a new wrinkle that allows for one-way communication, similar to that in the NFL. Kotelnicki will communicate with Allar through a microphone connected to the quarterback’s helmet. The same will happen on defense, where King will have Allen on the other end. Penn State worked on this process throughout the offseason. Kotelnicki plans to tell Allar the play, remind him of a key about the play and then repeat the play, being careful not to bog him down with too much information before the microphone shuts off. Teams can now also use iPads on the sideline to review plays in-game.
Playoff implications
Penn State starts the season with a 65 percent chance of making the Playoff, per The Athletic’s Austin Mock. With a win, Penn State dispatches a quality opponent that begins the season just outside the top 25 and could make it into the rankings this season. A Penn State win and WVU later making the rankings would help bolster Penn State’s Playoff resume. With a loss, the Nittany Lions’ Playoff odds drop to 41.4 percent, per Mock’s model. At that point, there would be even more pressure riding on the Ohio State game Nov. 2, and there wouldn’t be any room for a slip-up against the likes of Wisconsin, USC or anyone else.
Player we’ll be talking about Sunday
Wallace. He’s my pick to be the team’s top wide receiver this season. He has to stay healthy, but when he has been on the field there were flashes of big-play potential. Remember, he has one of the best vertical leaps on the team. If there’s a 50-50 ball Allar should trust he’s coming down with it.
Prediction
If Penn State is going to make the Playoff this season it needs a bounce-back year from Singleton, Allar and the entire offense. Kotelnicki’s career as a coordinator has been about doing more with less talent. This is still an extremely talented offense. How he maximizes the strengths of this group will be fascinating to see. I’m banking on Kotelnicki’s offense being a significant upgrade and the Penn State defense continuing to be just as disruptive as it was last season.Penn State 27, West Virginia 14
(Photo of offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and quarterback Drew Allar from before the spring game in April: Matthew O’Haren / USA Today)
Audrey Snyder has covered Penn State since 2012 for various outlets, including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Patriot-News and DKPittsburghSports. Snyder is an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and is the professional adviser for Penn State’s student chapter. Follow Audrey on Twitter @audsnyder4
