WVSports: West Virginia Mountaineers Football & Basketball Recruiting - West Virginia struggles as they drop season opener to No. 8 Penn State
WVU loses SCORE to PSU in season opener
West Virginia struggles as they drop season opener to No. 8 Penn State
- Thread starter wesleyshoemaker
- Start date
There's a fine line between struggling and sucking....and this team blew right past that line.
It's 1 game. Do this after 3 games and it's called sucking.
No problem. They were #8 and played like it. We aren't and played liked it. Continue to improve and do well in the conference after winning these next two games.
I think we will win 7-8 games this year. Its sucks to lose to PSU but Bobby Bowden and Don Nehlen were a combined 2-16 against PSU while at Wvu and both these coaches were hall of famers. The success of this team will be judged on how we perform against Kansas, K state, Okie State, and the rest of the middle tier of the Big 12. We have the talent to compete with these teams PSU just gets better players than we do. We would kill to get the players they get on most years.
Garrett is what he is - a 50% passer. Our receivers aren't going to outrun anybody we play this year so we'll have to sustain drives with 20 yard chunk plays instead of the 60 yarders other more elite teams can do.
This is the deepest DB backfield PSU has had in years. Our WR core isn't the best part of our team, but it will not face another group of DB's like it saw today all year.
True. But his stats proved what has consistently held true for him.
Hope he's able to take the next step over the rest of the season. But, until he does, he is what his stats say he is, sadly. But, he more than makes up for it with his running abilities, which are elite. Just wish his consistency was more so.
Yes, his stats are what they are but face it PSU is vastly more talented than we are. All the teams remaining will be more on our level. Some maybe slightly better some slightly worse. I still think we win 7-8 games and have a decent season.
While I get your point to a degree, I also think you might be over complimentary of Penn State. The difference is, Nehlen and Bowden could at least compete with these top teams. Same with Rodriguez. While I agree Penn State is a good team, they steamrolled us. And it’s not just them. It’s literally every team that’s ranked that we play. We got caught up in beating North Carolina in the bowl last year, but they were down close to 20 players who opted to sit out. Including their QB who was elite.
Nehlen and Bowden rarely competed with the top teams while at Wvu. Nehlen went 2 - 11 against PSU and nine of the losses were by double digits. Wvu got crushed by Miami in year 6 of Nehlen 58-14 at home. Nehlen did beat PSU twice, but they weren't very good PSU teams. The win against Oklahoma in 82 was nice as was the 93 win against Miami but neither Oklahoma nor Miami was at their best those years. Bowden was blown out in every game he faced PSU as Wvu coach. The teams Rod Assembled delivered us the wins against Georgia and Oklahoma, but the schedule was extremely easy back then. PSU may not be a tier 1 blue blood, but they are definitely a tier 2. The talent they have is much better than any of the teams we will face in the Big 12. Most seem to think Utah is the team to beat in the Big 12 this year and PSU blew them out in the rose bowl two years ago. I can understand people being upset but wait and let the season play out. If we get handled by some of the teams in the Big 12 the way we were today, then it's time to have this conversation. I don't see that happening. I think will be competitive with everyone we play from here on out.
Penn State is also (per today’s broadcast) 1-16 against top 5 and like 5-21 against the top 10 under Franklin. We should at least compete with them. You definitely have a point with waiting to see how we do against the Big 12, however, the last 5 years shows we haven’t beaten anyone ranked. That is until a depleted UNC squad. That was the difference I was referring to with Bowden , Nehlen, and Rod.
PSU has struggled against the Ohio States and Michigan's but not the Wvu type teams. If a coach went 5-21 at wvu against the top 10 it would probably look pretty good when placed in a historical perspective. Look at PSU's recruiting classes and compare that with the rest of the big 12. PSU had 8 players drafted into the NFL last year and they open the season as the 8th ranked team. That should tell you something about the talent level on that roster compared to what an average Big 12 team has.
I basically posted this in last year’s game thread with them and we were a hair from a 10 win season. They are just a bad matchup for us. Our strengths they can match us, our weaknesses they can dominate us. We know we are not a CFP team, atleast not in the traditional definition of what that has always meant, our goal is to win a lot of conference games and if the stars align compete for the conference title in the new wide open conference.
I guess this is the point that should be made. PSU is great against anyone not named Michigan and Ohio State. So then, PSU would be a 2nd tier team based upon that stat, which makes us at best a 3rd tier team? That is disheartening. In my honest opinion, we should not have lost by 20+ points at home today. We were completely overmatched. And our game plan looked less than stellar.
It feels like we haven’t won a “big” game since the Orange Bowl. Yea we had a few decent teams sprinkled in over the years, but we never win the big nationally televised hyped up game. If you haven’t been disheartened by now your expectations are off.
“Tiers” are a subjective term, but if I had to label us, we are a run of the mill middling power conference program. We almost never compete for conference championships, we almost never lose to the worst teams in our conference, on our best day we could sneak up on a team like PSU, but it isn’t gonna happen in an opener or major national spotlight type of game.
There is a lot of truth to this. We can’t beat Michigan or OSU or even PSU. We were over matched and should learn from it.
Doing a deep dive of what's been on PSU's rosters in the last couple of years. In the 2024 NFL draft they had 8 players drafted. In 2023 they had 6 players drafted. In 2022 they had 8 players drafted. In 2021 they had 6 players drafted. When the NFL opened its season in 2023 they had a total of 34 players on NFL rosters which puts them in 8th place amongst Division 1 football program. TCU had the most of any team currently in the big 12 and they had 19 which is almost half of PSU. If PSU were playing in the Big 12 they would overwhelm the teams currently in the conference on talent alone. PSU's problem has been an inability to beat teams with equal talent. They have been wiping their a$$ with teams on Wvu's level. I'm sure most of the PSU faithful are chalking up their shortcomings to be coaching problems and not that of talent.
Thank you for bringing truth and reality to these typical world is ending fools. New year, same nonsense. No one likes losing to Penn State but the better team won. Being truthful and realistic doesn't mean we are happy but rather, move on and be supportive. We weren't going undefeated but we can have a successful season and I believe we will.
What is most disheartening is I do not see any positives to take away here. Our secondary is leaving guys wide open by pee wee football standards. Our pass rush is laughable. Our LBs can't contain a scramble. Our offensive line is not opening running lanes. Our best back got injured. Our second best back stopped running like Quincy Wilson and started running like he is scared. Garrett Greene looked more like a poor man's Skylar Howard than an improved version. Our recievers can't hold on to catchable balls.
I know PSU is good, but where is the hope that this year's team will be better than last year? We got beat just as bad as last year. And this time PSU had more questions with 2 new coordinators, more pieces they needed to replace from last year than we did, and it was at home for us.
Pretty much. PSU is good, but gosh darn it, we didn't have to make them look like a national championship team..... We were just sloppy, uninterested, and unprepared.
No, we're just not as good as them - at any position. Not in quality, not in depth.
There's an old saying in football that goes, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap".
That isn't a referral to WVU's willingness, it's an attack on their abilities.
4 and 5 star players, when coached up and combined with experience, will whip the butt off a 3 star of equal value every day and twice on Sunday. The kids WVU has on their roster are ranked the way they are for a reason - they are a little too small, slower, or weaker. That is similar to what the majority of the kids they will play against this year will be also.
Just not Pedo State.
They need to work on a few things this week, get better, try a few new wrinkles, get the win against an inferior opponent, and get better the week after for Spitt. The first game doesn't make the season so don't let Pedo beat you next week, too.
There's an old saying in football that goes, "you can't make chicken salad out of chicken crap".
That isn't a referral to WVU's willingness, it's an attack on their abilities.
4 and 5 star players, when coached up and combined with experience, will whip the butt off a 3 star of equal value every day and twice on Sunday. The kids WVU has on their roster are ranked the way they are for a reason - they are a little too small, slower, or weaker. That is similar to what the majority of the kids they will play against this year will be also.
Just not Pedo State.
They need to work on a few things this week, get better, try a few new wrinkles, get the win against an inferior opponent, and get better the week after for Spitt. The first game doesn't make the season so don't let Pedo beat you next week, too.
There’s a difference in WVU competing and expecting to win. Did we look even remotely close to competing with them? If we’re going by historical reference, what is Neal Brown’s record at WVU against the top 25 compared to Bowden, Nehlen, Rodriguez, and Holgorsen? While I agree Penn State has the better players and access to them, I disagree that WVU cannot beat them.
We have only beaten PSU three times since 1955 we have never competed against them. The era NB has to navigate is not the same that the previous coaches had to deal with. The gap between the have and have nots is only getting wider. The end of the RR era was the only time when Wvu consistently was thought of as a team that could compete with the halves, but the schedules were so much weaker than they were today.
We also have only played them twice in 30+ years. Also this is not the same dominant Penn State program from the time period you’re referencing. While they are good, they are no longer elite level and winning national titles. As I stated, it’s not just our performance against Penn State. It’s an apparent lack of ability to even beat anyone in the top 25. That is NOT our historical performance.
PSU is ranked 8th in the country. They are currently ranked 8th in putting players into the NFL. When Wvu beat PSU in 1955 it wasn't until 1984 until we won again. That was a 29 year gap. Name a time when we beat a good PSU team under any coach? I think you're just upset we lost but the reality is we have never been competitive against them. None of the other members currently in the Big 12 get anywhere close to the level of Talent they get.
Again, what is our record against the top 25 under Brown. You’re trying to argue this is typical historical WVU performance but ignoring the same historical WVU performance against top 25 competition. What is Browns record against the top 25 at WVU compared with Bowden, Nehlen, Rodriguez, and Holgorsen. THAT will tell the story. And Penn State is not the same Penn State talent that Bowden and Nehlen faced
Dude just literally pointed out they are 8th in putting guys into the NFL, what did they used to be during Nehlen’s era? 7th?
I don't know what Browns record is against the top 25. I know it's not very good but either was any previous Wvu coach. No previous wvu coach had to navigate the landscape that Brown has. One of the reasons Baker was brought in is to help the football and Basketball teams navigate this new economic environment. Once again name a time when we beat a good psu team? doesn't that tell a story? Outside of beating Georgia in 2005 and Oklahoma in 2007 when else have we really beat a good team when they were at their best? What story does that tell considering its two years out of how many years we've been playing football.
Considering we’ve played Penn State a total of 2 times since 1991, it’s hard to say how many times Nehlen,Rodriguez, and Holgorsen would’ve beaten Penn State. That’s really not a good metric to try and gauge. While it’s true Brown has unprecedented challenges the previous WVU HC didn’t deal with, it’s also worth noting everyone else in college football has the same challenges. And they’ve adapted. There’s no reason to say it’s impossible when guys like Lance Leipold are successful at Kansas
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Okay - but they didn’t win the national championship in the 90s or the 70s or the 60s. They also didn’t play in the B1G during that era and have to go through a playoff along with a CCG and regular season games against Michigan and/or Ohio State. They have always been a decided step below the other NFL factories in terms of talent even in their glory days save for 1-2 years.
Cmon man you're better than this. If we continued to play PSU every year our record would still not be that good. The 1993 team would have been the only team Nehlen had in the remainder of his tenure that would have been remotely competitive with PSU. If we had played them in 93 we would have had to beat them in Happy valley and PSU had a good team that year. The only teams that RR had that would have beaten them would have been at the end of his tenure. I doubt the Stewart coached teams would have beaten them. Holgorsen would not have had much luck. In Holgorsen's last four seasons we only beat 1 team that finished in the top 25. Like I previously stated they have the 8th most players currently on NFL rosters. They may have not won any national championships lately, but they did beat Utah in the Rose Bowl two years ago.
Paterno went undefeated in both 1968 (11-0) and 1969 (11-0). Paterno went 12-0 in 1973. Paterno went 12-0 in the B10 in 1994.
First game of the year with a roster that Brown said might be his best he's had at WVU SHOULD have been better than what we witnessed. The offensive approach was stale at best. The defense was slow and lethargic.
Plus, if Brown shared your sentiments, he would have taken the points when possible instead of going for it on 4th down. He would have played a shell defense to force Penn State to complete long drives to score instead of quick hitting plays for TD's.
So, WVU deserves to be mediocre? Because that's what we've always been? And we should just accept this?
