Welcome back friends! Let’s take a longer look at the first game of the season, as the Nittany Lions put the West Virginia Mountaineers away pretty early, and as our friend Bennett put it, the hornet’s nest that Penn State was supposed to walk into “became more like that annoying wasp that gets caught between your storm door and front door.

I’ll add my little bit of spice to that. For the past couple of seasons, Penn State has been the recipient of “oh they might get upset by X, Y, or Z team” narratives, only for the Nittany Lions to roll. Two years ago, it was Purdue, then Auburn, then Utah. Last season, it was Illinois and Iowa. This season, it’s West Virginia, Wisconsin, USC, Washington, you name it.

The season just started, but and the Nittany Lions can very well lose its fair share of games outside of Ohio State, but one of those hopeful teams that will take down Penn State could barely put up a fight on Saturday. The hopes and wishes from people outside of the fanbase (and some inside the fanbase, let’s not get it twisted), will have to wait another week. Who knows, maybe they’ll play down against Bowling Green and get upset there.

The Nittany Lions, for a hot minute, did look like a team susceptible to being upset. The first quarter started with a too-jittery offense, fumbling on a bad snap on their first drive. West Virginia would kindly reciprocate, fumbling their own snap and giving the ball right back to the Nittany Lions. The Mountaineers had several opportunities in the first quarter, but couldn’t take advantage of any of them, especially after the Lion defense started to settle down.

Shortly after, Penn State’s offense followed suit, and settled down themselves. A four-play, 84-yard drive put the Nittany Lions on the board. After a failed two-point conversion, the Lions led 6-0. The Lions scored on the next drive, going up 13-0 as the second quarter rolled on. But they weren’t done. With 32 seconds left in the second quarter, the Nittany Lions scored a third touchdown, aided by a 55-yard pass to Omari Evans, then another one to Harrison Wallace III for his second receiving touchdown of the game.

[Please hold. Big weather delay ongoing]

Penn State received the ball in the second half, and wasted no time putting the game away. A 9-play, 78-yard drive capped by a 40-yard run from Nicholas Singleton put the Nittany Lions up 27-6, and from there, it was all a formality.

West Virginia, who scored two field goals in the first half, tacked a touchdown onto their score, followed by another Penn State touchdown where Andy Kotelnicki broke tendencies and let Beau Pribula throw a dart to Tyler Warren for what would become the final score.

It’s unlikely that Penn State goes undefeated. It’s possible that the Nittany Lions lose to non-Ohio State teams before postseason play. But, this week, that upset alert was more of a whisper.

Stats and Storylines

Well on his way – Harrison Wallace’s 117 receiving yards in this game is a little over half of his receiving yards for 2023. What a difference does a year, a coordinator change, and health, can make!

7 – The Nittany Lions had seven total plays that went for more than 20 yards. They’re well on their way to their season total, and it was only one game.

Did you see that – Drew Allar looked in control of the offense, leading to questions of how much responsibility actually rests on his shoulders for last season. However, did you see how fired up he was throughout the game? One of the themes of the offseason was Allar leveling up his leadership and being more vocal. Mission accomplished in week one.

Did you hear that – There was a “hot mic” moment early in the fourth quarter, where, after making a big play on defense, Jalen Kimber was heard saying some “not for TV” things that were hilarious to me, but awul to the pearl clutchers out there. To them, I say “**** no *****!

Highlights

Yes, you read that correctly.

Penn State’s explosive offense bolstered the team to its first victory of the season over West Virginia on Saturday afternoon. The offense didn’t miss a beat, even through the over two-hour rain delay, as it put up 34 total points.

The Nittany Lion’s offense was firing on all cylinders with new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki. Drew Allar threw for three touchdowns, a top receiving threat may have emerged, Nick Singleton had over 100 rushing yards, and the offensive line didn’t give up a sack.

As for explosive plays, specifically, James Franklin said after the game that his goal was to have 15 percent of snaps on offense go for explosive plays. According to Franklin, the team ended at 18.3 percent.

The first big play of the game was a 50-yard touchdown pass from Allar to Trey Wallace. Allar hit Wallace wide-open over the middle of the field and the speedy redshirt junior receiver did the rest.

Right before halftime, Allar took a shot downfield and found Omari Evans with a Mountaineer draped over him. The receiver went up and came down with the ball for a 55-yard gain.

“We know how fast he is,” Allar said after the game. “I was like ‘I’m just going to give [Evans] a chance’ and I think he did a great job of fighting for the ball and coming down with it.”

Evans’s grab set the Nittany Lions up at the West Virginia 18-yard line and a play later, Allar found Wallace again on a back-shoulder fade in the end zone with six seconds remaining in the half.

“[Allar] gave me a chance,” Wallace said. “I just knew I had to go out there a make a play for him.”

“I think we saw [Wallace] be who we always thought he was,” Allar said of his receiver. “It was really good seeing that from him.”

Wallace finished the game with five receptions for 117 yards and two touchdowns. However, the offense switched gears after halftime when the game was hit with a two-hour and 19-minute rain delay.

After the hours of rain, Penn State started flexing its running game in the second half. Singleton was the Nittany Lions’s leading rusher as he finished with 114 yards and a touchdown on 13 carries.

Singleton’s only game where he rushed for over 100 yards last season came in the last week of the regular season against Michigan State.

Singleton attributed the run to his offensive line who paved the way for over 200 yards on the ground and didn’t allow a sack during the game on Saturday.

“Shoutout to the whole line. They were doing their jobs,” Singleton said. “Shoutout to the tight ends, everybody. It was a whole team effort.”

As for Penn State’s most experienced offensive lineman Sal Wormley, he looks forward to explosive plays for the rest of the season. Wormley said the more explosive plays, the faster the offensive line can get off the field and stay rested.

“I don’t want to be taking these 14 play drives,” Wormley said jokingly. “We can do it, but it’s better if we can get them one and done.”

Although Penn State’s offense looked good against West Virginia last season, it wasn’t able to get anything going in the big games. Only time will tell if this offense is built to perform on the big stage this season. However, Allar believes the explosive plays can be consistent in Kotelnicki’s offense.

“We want to be an explosive offense,” Allar said. “We want to put points up on the scoreboard, so that’s going to be our goal every week.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. − The new, improved Penn State football offense was beginning to fide its stride in the season-opener before a weather delay shut everything down.

Thunderstorms with potential lightning rolling in from the West forced a stoppage of play here at halftime of Top 10 Penn State’s uneven but still overall impressive start against the West Virginia Mountaineers in Milan Puskar Stadium.

The game was suspended a few minutes into the break after a lightning strike was reported nearby. The stadium was evacuated with most seeking shelter under the stands.

A re-start time has not yet been announced.

Penn State is on the verge of pulling away, ahead 20-6 at the half, led by the Drew Allar-to-Tre Wallace-connection on offense and the dynamic safety combination of Jaylen Reed and KJ Winston on defense.

Allar completed 8-of-13 first-half passes for 199 yards and three touchdowns − nearly all of the work going to the finally-healthy Wallace. The junior wideout pulled in five of those passes for 117 yards and two scores.

On defense, Reed and Winston each had eight tackles in the first half. Reed was the top defender on the field with a tackle for loss, two pass breakups and a fumble recovery.

Penn State’s last weather delay?

That was in 2017 at Michigan State. Lighting strikes caused that eventual last-play loss to the Spartans to be delayed by three hours and 22 minutes.

Penn State football vs. West Virginia weather updates

This section will be updated. All times Eastern.

2:04 p.m.: Penn State’s season-opener at West Virginia is delayed for an impending storm with lightning strikes shortly after halftime begins.

2:30 p.m.: Heavy rains washing over Milan Puskar Stadium. Stadium announcer reveals that re-start game clock will not begin for at least another 30 minutes.

3:05 p.m.: Lightning strikes force the 30-minute weather delay clock to re-start once more. Officials have not yet determined when the game plans to resume, according to the stadium announcer.

Frank Bodani covers Penn State football for the York Daily Record and USA Today Network. Contact him at  fbodani@ydr.com and follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @YDRPennState.