All I saw on social media the last two weeks was my Penn State buddies dunking on Greene’s completion rate, their all-time record against us, the fact they’ve never won a Heisman…
I wasn’t quite that confident. I thought we’d have to win this one late; they’d hang around but in the end we’d make a blue-blood, chess-not-checkers move that would haunt Neal Brown’s nightmares for decades.
I may have given Garrett Greene a bit too much respect in my pre-game analysis of the Mountaineer’s offense. If we proved anything today it’s that the Big Ten is head-and-shoulders better than any college football conference not named the SEC. Greene built that resume in the Big12; welcome to the B1G, my friend.
Lets take a look at the Big Winners from today’s game.
The Safeties
Jaylen Reed
9 tackles, 2 PBUs, 1 TFL, 1 FR
Kevin Winston
12 tackles, 7 solo (both led team), 1 FF
On the first play of the game Reed broke up a potential chunk pass (pictured above), and he stayed hot all day. He recovered WVU’s first fumble – an unforced error – slamming the door on a dangerous scoring opportunity. On his next defensive snap, Reed trapped Garrett Greene in the backfield for a loss of 9.
Winston’s forced fumble on Greene – although the Mountaineers were able to recover – had a lot to do with Penn State holding one of the best mobile QBs in college football to 5 rushing yards on 10 attempts. You were looking at a man who respects his opposing defense.
The QB’s
Drew Allar
11/17-216 yds-3 TDs
6 rushes-44 yds
Beau Pribula
1/1-19 yds-1 TD
3 rushes-25 yds
Both these guys are out to prove they’re complete players. We’ve known who those guys are since they showed up: one’s a pocket passer, the other’s a mobile threat. Drew showed us some nice things as a runner (whoo boy, that stiff arm) and Beau threw that dagger to Tyler Warren.
Kotelnicki has shown he’s not handcuffed to a single starting signal-caller. He’s spoken glowingly about Beau’s skillset and the ways that can wrinkle opposing defenses. It’ll be interesting how this rotation shakes out as the season unfolds.
The Returning WR’s
Tre Wallace
5 rec-117 yds-2 TDs
Omari Evans
55 yd rec
Many hands were wrung this Spring/Summer about the lack of returning production in the receiver room. Wallace struggled to stay healthy in 2023 and Evans hasn’t been able to live up to the prophecies from the Blue-White games. It felt like there was a lot of weight on Julian Fleming’s shoulders, even before KLS transferred.
I know a couple guys who heard all the noise, and couldn’t wait to shut you up. Both pulled in hook-ups from Drew for 50+ yards in this game. Their ability to win downfield was definitely the headline but their ability to win consistently, in all phases of the field, really stood out to me – especially the back shoulder chemistry between Allar and Wallace at the end of the first half.
The aforementioned Fleming didn’t show up in the box score today. Surely that will change when they need to throw more than 18 times to win a game, but it’s good to know the returning cast is solidly on the SWIM side of sink/swim and you’re not resting all your hopes and dreams on an Outlander.
CamBlackburnWrites 