UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — With a new season comes new opportunities and many Penn State players took advantage of those in the team’s 46-11 win over Nevada Saturday afternoon at West Shore Bank Field at Beaver Stadium.
From the transfer receivers hauling in Drew Allar’s passes to Jim Knowles dialing up a defense that forced three turnovers, newcomers made their presences known early and often throughout the victory.
THE RECEIVERS
The blackhole of the 2024 campaign was the wide receiver room. In fact, Saturday’s win was the first time a Penn State receiver had made a reception since the Fiesta Bowl.
Trebor Pena and Kyron Hudson had impressive debuts with Hudson having a touchdown and 89 yards on six catches while Pena having seven catches for 74 yards.
To put that in perspective, the top two receivers last season, Harrison Wallace and Omari Evans did not reach six receptions in any single game.
It’s still Nevada and the schedule will assuredly get harder in a few weeks, but it’s an excellent start for an offense that had struggles with receivers last season.
THE DEFENSE
Saturday’s dominant performance was the regular season debut of Knowles and his 4-2-5 defense and it sure did not disappoint. Nevada’s yards off the starters were gathered solely among two drives the first drive of the game, a 44-yard drive which ended in a fumble and their lone scoring drive which was 59 yards and resulted in a field goal.
Knowles’ defense forced two other turnovers including an interception by Zane Durant set up by redshirt freshman Xavier Gilliam’s pressure of Chubba Purdy and deflection of the pass.
Add Nittany Sports Now as a preferred source in Google! Click here to add us.The Wolfpack had no answers for the first group and had six drives of five yards or less.
Linebacker and newcomer Amare Campbell led the Penn State defense with six tackles.
THE OLD GUYS
One of the biggest factors defensively was Dani Dennis-Sutton, who was an absolute problem for the Nevada offense throughout the first three quarters.
Dennis-Sutton finished with two forced fumbles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss and five total tackles against the Wolfpack and was constantly forcing Purdy to reevaluate his decisions.
On the offensive side, Kaytron Allen and Nick Singleton did what was expected of them in minimal action with each getting eight carries. Singleton scored twice and Allen added a touchdown of his own.
Allar spread the ball around to six receivers and threw for 217 yards and a touchdown. He was 22-26, but was flushed out of the pocket quite a bit.
It should also be noted Ethan Grunkemeyer played the entire fourth quarter and led a 15-play, 94-yard scoring drive on his first possession.
It was far from the prettiest of performances but it’s the only game one and much more football is still to be played.
