Penn State-West Virginia: What's new with the Mountaineers 12 days before kickoff?
Penn State sits just 12 days from its opener at West Virginia. The Nittany Lions are now a 9.5-point favorite at FanDuel. That’d down from an opening number of 12.5 points back in June. Head coach Neal Brown’s team is not in the top 25 and picked to finish in the middle of the pack in the Big 12. It’s something the longtime leader of the Mountaineers does not exactly appreciate. He has been vocal this offseason about the fact that he thinks his team, and some of its star players, are being slept on entering the 2024 slate.
“If you just look at our resume, how we finished the year, quality wins we had last year with what we had coming back, that resume is going to get in the Top 25. So what gives? I don’t know. Our top players are being undervalued,” Brown told ESPN.
More on West Virginia ahead of the Penn State game
Garrett Greene returns under center for WVU. Jaheim White and CJ Donaldson will lead the way in the backfield. Those three received minimal work during a scrimmage last weekend. Brown did not give his team a sterling review following it in an interview with the school’s official website.
“We got a lot of really good video,” Brown said. I wasn’t real fired up about some of it, but I thought some individuals really showed up and I thought there were some disappointing things in it as well. Really, the last three practices we’ve kind of been trending upward and today we just weren’t at our best. I can make excuses for them but I’m not. We have to be better than we were today.
“Two weeks from today we will be sitting here postgame and truthfully, after today, I’m glad we’ve got it,” Brown said, adding, “it wasn’t awful, but the expectations here are high, and it’s a daily standard.”
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ESPN SP+ ranks West Virginia at No. 34 nationally. Bill Connelly, who creates the metrics, believes West Virginia will have a top 25 offense. Its defense and special teams, however, rank outside of the top 50, which may hold the Mountaineers back. But, Brown believes his program has fixed the issues that plagued it, especially on defense, a year ago.
“We’ve gone out and solidified our pass coverage, which was our weakness last year,” Brown said, according to Sports Illustrated. “We got two top level corners and we’re going to be better in coverage than we ever have been in the six years I’ve been here. And then offensively, we’ve got a chance to be one of the best offenses in the country and it starts with Garrett Greene, who I think’s electric. He’s much improved as a passer. He’s under the radar and I’m not sure why.
“We played three freshmen receivers last year and we’re going to be significantly better there. We’re still a run first offense. We were really explosive with the pass game, but we’ve got to be more efficient. We’ve got to be more efficient on third down, throwing the ball, and we’ve got to be able to throw the ball in the red zone for touchdowns. We did neither of those things last year at a high level. Defensively, we’ve got to stop the run and create more takeaways. If we can do those things then we’re going to positon ourselves with an opportunity to win our league.”
