Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1526526
8 O C T O B E R 2 0 2 4 OPENING SHOT DELAYED GRATIFICATION It took a lot longer than expected for fa- vored Penn State to put away West Virginia in its season opener, but that was no fault of the Nittany Lions. The start of the game's second half was delayed by nearly two and a half hours when a severe thunderstorm blew through Morgantown, forcing fans to seek shelter under the concourse of Milan Puskar Stadium, while the teams huddled in their locker rooms. "It's challenging when you're the visiting team, because you're stuck in a very small locker room," coach James Franklin said. "That's not a critique of West Virginia; it's like that everywhere. [The hosts] have all of their facilities that they're able to use, so there are some real challenges that come with that." The Nittany Lions had built a 20-6 lead before the stoppage, thanks in large part to a breakout performance from redshirt junior wide receiver Harrison "Trey" Wallace III (right, No. 6). That took a bit longer than expected, too. Wallace had been eyeing a breakout last year, but a series of injuries forced him to miss five games, and he finished with 19 catches for 228 yards and 1 score. Against the Mountaineers, Wallace had 5 catches for a career-high 117 yards. He scored 2 touchdowns, including an 18-yard TD grab in the final seconds of the first half that changed the complexion of the game and touched off an end zone celebration. The Nittany Lions had taken possession at their own 27-yard line with just 32 seconds left and seemed likely to run out the clock and head to the locker room. Instead, junior quarterback Drew Allar completed a 55-yard pass to junior receiver Omari Evans on sec- ond down, setting up Wallace's score on the next play. "It was great to see Trey, a guy we've been talking about for a while, have a big game and give you guys something to write about," Franklin told reporters afterward. "Obviously, we want to try to get everybody involved in the run game, in the pass game and all those things. But overall, I thought we did some re- ally good things. "We're going to watch this tape, and there's going to be a ton of stuff that we don't like and that we need to get cleaned up, but we were able to come on the road in a very tough environment and get a win against a team that I think is really under- ranked." — Matt Herb PHOTO BY FRANK HYATT