West Virginia-Penn State to Renew Dormant Football Series on Saturday
August 30, 2023 12:38 PM | Football
| Tale of the Tape (2022) |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| Points Per Game | 35.8 | 30.6 |
| Points Against | 18.2 | 32.9 |
| Rushing Yards Per Game | 181.1 | 171.5 |
| Rushing Yards Allowed Per Game | 111.2 | 149.6 |
| Passing Yards Per Game | 252.2 | 227.5 |
| Passing Yards Allowed Per Game | 212.3 | 262.7 |
| Total Yards Per Game | 433.6 | 399.0 |
| Total Yards Allowed Per Game | 323.5 | 412.3 |
| First Downs For | 278 | 279 |
| First Downs Against | 235 | 260 |
| Fumbles/Lost | 12/8 | 12/6 |
| Interceptions/Return Yards | 14/243 | 4/76 |
| Net Punting | 40.7 | 41.0 |
| Field Goal/Attempts | 13/18 | 14/15 |
| Time of Possession | 30:36 | 31:19 |
| 3rd Down Conversions | 68/180 | 73/177 |
| 3rd Down Conversion Defense | 67/202 | 66/162 |
| Sacks By/Yards Lost | 43/284 | 26/186 |
For Brown, it's understandable considering the team he coaches, West Virginia, won this game so infrequently over the years that it rivaled a Halley's Comet passing. Since I'm generally considered to be the athletic staff's crack historian, Brown recently asked me how many times West Virginia has won in State College. "Let's put it this way, coach, each time it's happened, they've had a parade here," was my reply.
West Virginia has won three times in Happy Valley, to be exact, in 1944, 1953 and 1954. The last time it happened, West Virginia fans had to drive through the remnants of Hurricane Hazel to watch Bruce Bosley put on a display of dominance in a 19-14 victory that had Mountaineer fans singing all the way back into the hills of Almost Heaven.
I believe that was also the game in which coach Art Lewis personally challenged the sometimes-temperamental Sam Huff to whip Penn State left tackle Rosey Grier, a top NFL prospect then much like Penn State's left tackle Olu Fashanu is today.
As the story goes, Pappy told Huff that if he got the best of Rosey, he would buy him a new suit on Monday morning. And to Lewis' horror, that's exactly what Huff did! He beat up old Rosey snap after snap and in West Virginia's joyous locker room afterward, Sam demanded payment for his efforts. Lewis, fully understanding that he was the West Virginia football coach, which also meant that he got paid like a West Virginia football coach, didn't have the money in his bank account to make good on the challenge. Art's solution was to have his wife, Mary, get one of his old suits out of the closet and tailor it to fit Huff in time to present it to him on Monday afternoon in front of the team.
Problem solved.
I guess that makes Pappy Lewis far ahead of his time when it comes to name, image and likeness, which surely resonates with today's players, even if Franklin doesn't have enough time to bother them with nostalgia.
"When you talk about history, recent history, I don't think there's been a game played while these guys were alive," he correctly pointed out Tuesday.
"It's like this is very similar to another game that we played here recently that there was a ton of questions," Franklin added, alluding to the recent four-game series with in-state rival Pitt.
"Again, that history, although it would be nice to take some time and talk about the history of college football and the history of this region and some of these games, there's just not a whole lot of value in that in terms of getting our guys ready to play this game and be successful. There's not a whole lot of storylines that would make sense for them," Franklin concluded.
Perhaps, but the David vs. Goliath aspect still applies. Penn State dominated the West Virginia series for years because the Nittany Lions dominated Eastern recruiting, particularly when Joe Paterno became an established entity in the late 1960s.
Year after year, West Virginia sportswriters would ask Paterno when West Virginia was finally going to beat Penn State and Paterno answered each question the same, "When West Virginia has better football players than Penn State."
I can remember the late Jim Carlen talking about the great disappointment he felt when his 17th-ranked Mountaineer team lost 20-0 at fifth-ranked Penn State in 1969. That was the Mountaineers' lone defeat that season and the players and coaches have since replayed that sunny afternoon endlessly in their minds. I've heard most of their what-ifs?
West Virginia had an outstanding football team that year, for sure, but it was still not in Penn State's class. Sorry, guys, but if those two teams played 10 times, West Virginia quarterback Mike Sherwood is still running for his life in game 10.
The incomparable Bobby Bowden had big-time trouble with Penn State as well. One year, when Penn State defeated his Mountaineers 62-14, John Cappelletti dedicated his four-touchdown performance to his dying kid brother, Joey, which later was turned into a network TV movie. Following the game, after Bowden learned of this, he said he had wished Cappelletti would have scored a fifth one.
In 1975, Bowden's best West Virginia squad - and one of the sneaky good teams in Mountaineer football history - got boat-raced 39-0 in Happy Valley.
In all, Penn State won 25 straight games from 1959-83 before West Virginia finally ended the streak in 1984 in Morgantown. Four years later, the Mountaineers defeated Penn State once again. Then, four years after that, they quit playing, so, yes, history doesn't really apply to this Saturday's game other than the daunting task West Virginia once again faces.
People in State College firmly believe this is James Franklin's best football team in his 10 years there, with enough talent to finally give Ohio State and Michigan a run for their money in the Big Ten Conference this season.
The Athletic's Bruce Feldman certainly thinks so. Each year, after consulting scouts and contacts throughout football, he publishes his list of "Freak" athletes and normally the most outstanding teams in the country get two or three on it. His list this year includes six Penn State players!
They are defensive end Chop Robinson, defensive tackle Jordan van den Berg, left tackle Olu Fashanu, running back Nick Singleton, defensive tackle Zane Durant and linebacker Abdul Carter. The West Virginia coaches you talk to would add more.
On Monday, Neal Brown said he believes there are nine players on Penn State's unannounced defensive two-deep good enough to be drafted, which prompted one Nittany Lion fan site to try and figure out which nine Brown was talking about.
Speaking of unknowns, neither coach has announced his starting quarterback for Saturday's game. Penn State's two candidates are Drew Allar and Beau Pribula, a player whom Brown said West Virginia unsuccessfully tried to recruit. West Virginia's are junior Garrett Greene and redshirt freshman Nicco Marchiol.
And much like Paterno did during all those years whenever he was asked to talk about West Virginia, Franklin had to dig deep to come up with positive things to say about the Mountaineers, regularly referring to the players whom he was most familiar through recruiting. For his part, Brown sounded much like all those West Virginia coaches before him lauding the Nits with the same platitudes we graybeards used to hear all the time from the likes of Corum, Carlen, Bowden, Cignetti and Nehlen.
In that regard, 2023 is no different than 1963, 1973 or 1983.
Even during the one instance when the Mountaineers were a prohibitive favorite, in 1988, nothing was taken for granted here. The late "Voice of the Mountaineers" Jack Fleming vividly illustrates this point in his unforgettable scene setter to begin the Mountaineer Sports Network radio broadcast that afternoon:
There is an old saying that floats on the wind over southern West Virginia and it goes something like this, "Everything that goes around comes around." From the days of the Hatfields and McCoys it has held true. Mountaineers standing proud and tall would take their licks and head back into the woods to lick their wounds and then they would emerge to fight another day.
Thus, we find ourselves in the crossroads on a sunny, October afternoon in 1988. For over 30 years, our faithful have been bedeviled by the Penn State Nittany Lions, starting with the late Art Lewis. But after he beat them three times in a row, the Nits began teeing off on West Virginia. Gene Corum, Jim Carlen, Bobby Bowden and Frank Cignetti took lump after lump from the Blue and White. Finally, in 1984, Don Nehlen put a stop to it. West Virginia won 17-14, but the Gold and Blue fans got so out of hand that Papa Joe Paterno had the pleasure of calling off the game with less than a minute to go, and that's typical.
In 1985, 1986 and 1987, Penn State regained control, but now it's 1988, and the invaders from the north are here, sneaking in to try and smoke out West Virginia one more time. For State, a winning season is at stake. For West Virginia, an undefeated season is on the line, along with the Mountaineers' national ranking.
There is one difference: the hordes from the north are the underdogs. I expect them to come out inside a Trojan Horse. They are still led by a crafty little guy with horned-rimmed glasses – the man who promotes himself as the savior of college football! West Virginia is not fooled on this October day. He is Joe Paterno – the Darth Vader from Mt. Nittany. He'll do anything to win this football game to pacify Penn State's newfound horde of hors d'oeuvre-chomping, wine-sipping, Mercedes-driving, yuppy followers. My friends, this isn't a football game today, it is a crusade! We need you, wherever you are this afternoon. Hoist the battle flag, find a good rock for cover and stay with us because the invaders are here! The hills of West Virginia resound with the sounds of the Mountaineers in combat, and the West Virginia Mountaineers are on the air!"
What else can be said after reading that?
This will be West Virginia's most challenging road opener since it traveled to Norman, Oklahoma, to face ninth-ranked Oklahoma on Sept. 11, 1982. Sooners coach Barry Switzer didn't know who quarterback Jeff Hostetler was, and the director hired by a fledgling sports television company named ESPN thought West Virginia defensive coordinator Dennis Brown was actually head coach Don Nehlen, misidentifying the two frequently on air until an irate WVU football staffer barged into the TV truck to straighten them out.
Later that afternoon, everyone knew who they were.
Perhaps West Virginia has another performance like that in it when it meets Penn State on Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. under the bright, primetime lights of NBC. Noah Eagle and Penn State alum Todd Blackledge will join sideline reporter Kathryn Tappen on the call.
Continuous nine-hour Mountaineer Sports Network radio coverage begins at 4:30 p.m. on stations throughout West Virginia, online via WVUsports.com and the popular Varsity Network and WVU Gameday apps.
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