MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is inching closer toward its home opener against eighth-ranked Penn State on Saturday, Aug. 31.
 
The Mountaineers had a fully padded practice inside Milan Puskar Stadium Tuesday afternoon, which was basically the final practice of preseason camp before the team turns the page to Penn State preparation.
 
Wednesday's workout will be a mock game with players and coaches rehearsing game-day situations with a full officiating crew on hand.
 
"It's a dry run and, we will try and run through a bunch of different situations and do it in our game uniforms and do it with the officials out there," West Virginia coach Neal Brown explained. "We will come back and forth off the sidelines, and it's a trial run as much for the coaches as it is for our players."
 
As for today's practice, the coach was much more pleased with his team's performance than he was following Saturday's officiated scrimmage inside the stadium.
 
"Today was good work," he admitted. "We wanted to get back into the stadium at the game time and anytime you can get out when the sun is out in our stadium is good because the sun hits a little different.
 
"We got a lot of good 11-on-11 work, situational and working a lot of third downs, red zone and two minute, and it was good," he said. "I thought there was some good stuff on both sides."
 
Defensively, he thought good pressure was put on the quarterbacks during the team periods.
 
"We did a nice job rushing the passer, I thought our wide outs made some contested catches and I thought our quarterbacks put some balls in some tight windows," he noted. "There was some give and take today, which is pleasing to see."
 
Overall, the coach is seeing signs that the passing game is continuing to progress. A big focus coming into preseason camp was improving last year's 53.8% completion percentage and this afternoon the quarterbacks appeared to be connecting at a much higher rate.
 
On several occasions, nice catches were made in contested situations.
 
"We are better at wide out, and we're better at covering people, too, so there have been some real competitive battles, which is positive to see," Brown said.
 
On the other side of the ball, Brown believes the defense has been making strides over the last handful of practices, including last Saturday's scrimmage.
 
Brown indicated all the defensive packages have been installed and now it's a matter of determining which ones are going to be the most effective.
 
"It's about communication and playing together," the coach said. "Also, too, part of camp you put your whole package together and then you're trying to figure out what you can and can't do."
 
Brown and his coaches were pretty animated on the field today creating more of a sense of urgency for the team with the season opener now just 10 days away.
 
"It's getting close, and we've got to be a team that really does the things that quality teams do," Brown said. "We've got to be disciplined. We can't be a team that has procedure penalties. We've got to be a team that is really smart and understands situational football who doesn't beat ourselves. Those are some things that are just really important as we get closer to the game."
 
ESPN, in its most recent power rankings released on Monday, has Penn State rated eighth. This is what ESPN.com's Jake Trotter writes about the Nittany Lions:
 
"The Nittany Lions boast the top returning quarterback in the Big Ten who actually played in the Big Ten last season. Drew Allar quietly had a promising first season, throwing for 25 touchdowns with only two interceptions. He also finished 26th nationally and fourth in the Big Ten in Total QBR (73.7). Penn State, however, is hoping that new offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki can help unlock Allar as a downfield passing threat; Allar ranked just 92nd in yards per passing attempt (6.76) and 109th in air yards per attempt (7.05). With Kotelnicki calling plays, Kansas ranked third in yards per attempt (10.04) and 10th in air yards per attempt (11.20) last year. The Nittany Lions have the talent on both sides of the ball to make a run to the playoff -- if the passing attack takes another step forward."
 
Bill Connelly, writing for ESPN SP+, ranks West Virginia 34^th nationally and his metrics have the Mountaineers rated among the top 25 offenses in the country. The defense and special teams currently rank outside of his top 50, however.
 
The Lions recently named their six team captains for the 2024 season. They are Allar and center Nick Dawkins on offense, middle linebacker Kobe King and strong safety KJ Winston on defense and Dominic DeLuca and Riley Thompson on special teams.
 
DeLuca is the only returning captain on the list.
 
Up front, Penn State is expected to play as many as eight offensive linemen in the opener against the Mountaineers.
 
"I think we'll have more than two tackles play," Penn State coach James Franklin was quoted earlier today in StateCollege.com. "I think we'll have at least three guards play, and I think we'll have two centers play. So, how much? We'll see. We've still got a ton of work to do between now and then, but I think we have probably a little bit more depth than we've had in the past. That's a good thing."
 
The remainder of the schedule for West Virginia this week includes exclusive Penn State prep on Thursday and Friday. 
 
Saturday is an off day for the players and then Sunday begins game week.
 
For fans wanting to purchase tickets for the Penn State game, the only option is by ordering one of the limited number of season tickets remaining by calling the Mountaineer Ticket Office toll-free at 1-800-WVU GAME or by logging on to WVUGAME.com.