A season with championship aspirations began on a brilliant afternoon Saturday at Beaver Stadium and generally went as expected.
Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen ran for touchdowns. Drew Allar threw the football efficiently. Dani Dennis-Sutton was dominant on defense.
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All of which led to Penn State’s 46-11 victory over Nevada, an overmatched but game opponent.
The Nittany Lions took the first step, as small as it was, toward winning a national title by playing a fairly clean game without a turnover.
“You see a ton of sloppy football early in the season,” coach James Franklin said. “I didn’t see any of that. We didn’t have stupid penalties. We didn’t put the ball on the ground. We didn’t burn timeouts. That was big.”
Those who draw conclusions from one game do so at their own risk, but there were concerns.
Penn State’s offense failed to reach the end zone after Zane Durant’s interception return to the 6-yard line and King Mack’s 73-yard kickoff return to the 18. The Lions also drove two times inside the Nevada 25 without a TD.
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“There’s an area that we need to improve,” Franklin said. “We stalled out a few times. …We obviously didn’t execute down there and we need to do that. I thought our run game, especially our outside zone stuff, could have been better.”
The Lions netted 135 yards on 36 carries, a meager 3.8 average, with a veteran offensive line and two premier backs. Allen ran eight times for 43 yards and Singleton eight times for 19. Allen’s longest run was 12 yards and Singleton’s was 6.
Nevada designed its defense to limit explosive plays, especially runs. The Wolf Pack allowed 193 rushing yards per game last season and returned just two starters on defense. They’re not in the same ballpark as Oregon and Ohio State.
“You have to give credit to Nevada,” Singleton said. “They’re a good defense.I felt we did good for the first game, but there’s stuff we have to fix.”
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Penn State scored on its first nine possessions and never punted. Allar seemed much more comfortable with new wide receivers Kyron Hudson and Trebor Pena. Those two combined for 13 receptions for 163 yards and one TD.
“I thought with Andy (offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki) being in Year 2, you could feel the difference,” Franklin said.
Year 1 with Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator started well. The Lions held Nevada to 204 total yards, including 78 on the ground. They forced three turnovers, two by Dennis-Sutton, and made nine tackles in the backfield.
“It was a good first game,” said defensive tackle Zane Durant, who had his first career interception. “We have a lot to work on and Coach Knowles knows that. We’re going to learn a lot from it.”
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Developing depth on defense, particularly up front, in the three non-conference games before Penn State opens Big Ten play against Oregon is imperative. Sixth-year senior Zuriah Fisher was expected to start at end, but he has not fully recovered from a season-ending injury he suffered last year.
Redshirt freshman Jaylen Harvey started for the first time. True freshmen Chaz Coleman and Yvan Kemajou also saw significant action at end.
The secondary had a couple surprise starters, Kenny Woseley Jr. at nickel instead of Zion Tracy, who was in street clothes, and Audavion Collins at cornerback instead of Elliot Washington II.
In all, 73 players saw action for Penn State, including Wyomissing grad J’ven Williams and Exeter grad Joey Schlaffer. Expect more of the same next week against FIU at noon at home.
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“The reps that we were able to get for our twos and threes are really valuable,” Franklin said.
The Lions probably will be second in the two major polls on Tuesday after Ohio State’s win over Texas. The opener went as well as could be expected other than Nevada’s last-minute TD spoiling some fans’ wagers.
They won easily and have things to work on, most notably the running game and the red zone offense.
“They (Nevada) tried to get an extra hat in the box and that impacted us a little bit,” Franklin said. “We didn’t have the explosive runs like you’d hope for. That was part of their plan. Don’t let the two running backs beat you.
“We have things to get cleaned up. There’s no doubt about it.”
