Penn State fans generally don’t like West Virginia more than they did before Saturday’s game.
Part of that is because of two postgame comments made WVU coach Neal Brown.
Brown commented on Penn State’s decision to go for a touchdown— which it got— on the game’s last drive despite leading by two scores and having the game in hand.
“I wouldn’t have done it,” Brown said, “but it doesn’t bother me.”
What Brown said next will perhaps be most intriguing.
“Stuff like that comes back around.”
That wasn’t the only eye-brow raising comment Brown made.
Penn State only had one penalty for five yards all night. West Virginia had five for 55 yards.
Whether this happened because of officiating errors or West Virginia simply committing more penalties than Penn State is up for debate, but Brown suggested postgame that he feels it was more of the former.
“Either they blocked the cleanest of anybody in the history of college football,” Brown said, “or there were some missed calls.”
Brown’s comments got PSU fans talking and tweeting, but in fairness, he was complimentary of PSU for the most part both before and after the game.
Before the game, he estimated that PSU had nine future NFL draft picks on defense alone.
After the game, he praised players such as QB Drew Allar, LT Olu Fashanu and CB Kalen King.
One of Brown’s players, DL Mike Lockhart, also spoke highly of Penn State to media, including Mike Asti of our partner site WV Sports Now, Monday.
He told reporters that Penn State deserved its No. 7 ranking and said teams have to be on their A+ game to beat PSU.
“They were a great team,” he said. “They’re the type of team, you can make little to no mistakes. You have to make sure you’re on everything. You basically almost have to play a perfect game, and when you have opportunities to capitalize, you have to capitalize.”
Lockhart also said he went against Penn State LT and projected top-five 2024 NFL draft choice Olu Fashanu “a couple times.”
“He’s a great, great tackle,” Lockhart said. “Great feet, great hands. We definitely tried to get him in the run game and in the pass game. We had two sacks, so we had a couple plays. But he’s a definitely a top tackle in my opinion.”
Lockhart was also impressed by the home crowd.
“It was definitely a loud environment,” he said. “I’d see a couple crowds like that throughout my career. Definitely used to it by now, but one of the top atmospheres that I played in in my college career.”
