Does Penn State have playmakers at receiver? Opening win shows promise (2024)

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Harrison Wallace III walked out of the tunnel Saturday afternoon before Penn State’s 34-12 win at West Virginia clutching a football. He looked toward the crowd as it started to file into the stadium.

The Nittany Lions wide receiver waited for moments like this last season as multiple injuries kept him sidelined and questions about this receiving corps mounted all offseason. It was impossible not to see or hear the criticism of his position group.

The Penn State receivers kept that in mind as they put in extra work this summer to make sure, Wallace said, that this season would be different. Next to Wallace on Saturday walked wide receiver Omari Evans, the player coach James Franklin weighed in on leading up to the season opener. If they could get the 6-foot, 188-pound speedster confidence early this season, Franklin said, it could be the very thing that unlocks his production.

Evans smiled and carried a football too, something Wallace said all the receivers have been encouraged to do by position coach Marques Hagans. This fresh crop of receivers, like Jahan Dotson used to do during his Penn State career, toting the ball through campus and during interviews, all cradled footballs the night before the opener.

They sat around in their hotel rooms Friday night tossing the football up to themselves like they’ve done thousands of times before. They held footballs Saturday when they stepped off the bus, wrapping one arm around their family members who wished them luck, keeping the other firmly on the football.

And on Saturday afternoon, when quarterback Drew Allar needed to move Penn State into scoring position late in the first half, it was Evans who ended up holding the ball once again, reeling in a 55-yard catch. One play later, Wallace acrobatically snared the football and got his foot down for an 18-yard touchdown, the ball fired into the tightest of windows.

These wide receivers were certainly not a liability Week 1.

“This was the coming out party with what’s at stake this year,” Wallace said.

Questions were answered about new coordinator Andy Kotelnicki’s offense and if Penn State has the players to create the explosive plays it needs to put itself into the College Football Playoff.

It was a career day for Wallace, who looked and played like the No. 1 receiver, putting together the best game of his career, complete with five catches for 117 yards and two touchdowns. This was a win that laid the foundation for what this offense is and what this receiving corps might be able to help this team accomplish this season.

“This may be too soon, but that one play looked like we just chucked it deep down the middle of the field,” Franklin said in jest, referring to his viral moment last season when he said Penn State can’t simply chuck the ball deep and that there needs to be thought going into their shot plays.

Penn State’s lack of deep shots and lack of explosive plays became one of the biggest indicators of how poorly the offense was performing.

“Too soon, too soon,” he quipped Saturday.

Penn State had 457 yards of total offense and averaged 19.6 yards per completion and 5.3 yards per carry. As Franklin stood at the front of the visitor’s media room, he said something that was not said often last season: Penn State won the explosive play battle and also hit its weekly goal.

The goal is to turn 15 percent of its total plays into explosive gains, and Penn State exceeded that with 18 percent of plays being classified as explosives, Franklin said. Eight rushes went for 10 yards or more, while Allar didn’t hesitate to air it out to a full assortment of playmakers. In addition to Evans’ catch, the longest of the game, Allar also hit Wallace for a touchdown of 50 yards. Allar also found running back Kaytron Allen for a 20-yard touchdown. Backup QB Beau Pribula delivered a 19-yard touchdown pass to tight end Tyler Warren.

“He was out of this world,” Wallace said of Allar. “Just the reads he was making, his decisions. But as I said, everything that y’all saw today we were consistently doing throughout camp.”

If this game was an indication of what’s to come once Allar and these receivers — and these other weapons Penn State has shown it had and is willing to use — get rolling, then this offense will be drastically improved. Yes, it was far from perfect, as Franklin acknowledged, with Penn State converting 5 of 11 third downs and a safety clapping out Allar’s cadence — resulting in a lost fumble that left the quarterback irked. But it’s also notable that the offense sustained its performance throughout the game.

Unlike last season, when there were significant lulls and drive after drive stalled or went three-and-out, the Nittany Lions went three-and-out just three times. They were nearly identical with run and pass production — 222 rushing yards to 235 passing yards. There certainly was the chance for all this progress to stall, too. But after a 2-hour, 19-minute lightning delay, the offense didn’t turn complacent.

Wallace said the receivers looked at their iPads trying to see what they could do better. He didn’t even look back at his acrobatic touchdown, he said, because that was in the past.

They took turns riding the stationary bike. They talked with their quarterback. They focused on recovery and stimulation, making sure their muscles were warm for whenever they’d pack away their folding chairs that spread throughout the tunnel and return to the field.

Even as the offense put the pedal down in the second half, the celebration afterward spoke to a team that knows this is but one step forward in a season it hopes lasts into January.

The players jogged by fans and posed for pictures — Wallace even taking a smart phone to capture a video as he beamed with supporters.

But it still felt business-like.

“Y’all ain’t seen nothing,” Wallace said. “That wasn’t even a third or anything of what we have.”

(Photo of Harrison Wallace III: Ben Queen / USA Today)

Audrey Snyder has covered Penn State since 2012 for various outlets, including The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Patriot-News and DKPittsburghSports. Snyder is an active member of the Association for Women in Sports Media (AWSM) and is the professional adviser for Penn State’s student chapter. Follow Audrey on Twitter @audsnyder4