UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Penn State football returns for its 138th season and will open the 2024 season for the second consecutive year against West Virginia on Saturday in Morgantown at Big Noon Kickoff on FOX.
The Nittany Lions finished 2023 with a record of 10-3, posting their third double-digit win season in the last five years. Penn State has won 19 of its last 22 season openers and will face its border-state rival for the 61st time in the two programs’ illustrious history.
Penn State defeated the Mountaineers 38-15 on Sept. 2, 2023, in front of the sixth-largest crowd in Beaver Stadium history, as junior quarterback Drew Allar dazzled with 325 passing yards and three touchdowns in his first start. Head coach James Franklin met with the media Monday before the game.
Preparing for the environment
West Virginia finished the 2023 season 9-4, finishing with five wins in their final six games, including a convincing victory over North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl.
The Mountaineers boast a sophisticated away team with its own rich tradition. Franklin acknowledged how difficult it is to start a year at a place like Milan Puskar Stadium, saying, “It gets even worse when you don’t have an NFL team there. This state is all about West Virginia and Mountaineers football.”
The 11-year head coach also spoke about how they can mimic the opposition’s noise in training to prepare for the crowd, saying: “It’s one thing to do that at home in front of 100,000 fans, which is challenging. It’s a whole other thing to do that away with 70,000 people who kind of hate you. It’s your 250 against their 70,000.”
Franklin also mentioned assistant head coach/defensive recruiting coordinator/cornerbacks coach Terry Smith, who was a wide receiver for the Nittany Lions in 1988, which was Penn State’s last road loss in Morgantown. Franklin explained how valuable Smith’s experience playing on the road against West Virginia is to the players and coaching staff.
“You also have to look at the last time West Virginia beat Penn State and the last time Penn State beat West Virginia. We have someone on our team who was in their stadium the last time West Virginia won at them,” Franklin said. “That’s valuable; we have to take advantage of what that experience is like and how it happened.”
Liam Clifford’s consistency and confidence
This fall, Clifford will wear the blue and white jersey for the eighth consecutive season. Redshirt junior wide receiver Liam Clifford is forging his own path after his brother Sean Clifford tied for the all-time passing yards record at Penn State.
Liam set a career high in receiving yards in 2023 and is poised to expand his role as a pass receiver in Andy Kotelnicki’s first year as offensive coordinator. “I think maturity in college football has a chance to win games, probably in a similar way to how it’s impacted college basketball when you can have an older veteran team or an older veteran position,” Franklin said. “I think a lot of those things are showing up with Liam.”
Franklin recognized that Liam has improved in terms of his well-being and consistency, allowing the Maineville, Ohio native to enter his fourth season in Happy Valley with more confidence.
“I look at his college career in a lot of ways like his high school career,” Franklin said. “He just got better every year. He had a really dominant senior year, a really good junior year and I think his college career is about the same. He’s faster than people give him credit for; he’s got a big catch radius. I think he has a chance to be a playmaker for us this year. He’s shown glimpses of that in the past.”
Julian Fleming brings experienced presence to the WR room
Veteran wide receiver Julian Fleming is back in Pennsylvania with the Nittany Lions after playing at Southern Columbia Area High School, where he was named the state’s top receiver.
Fleming has amassed 963 receiving yards with seven touchdowns during his college career and is very aware of the physical demands that come with a Big Ten season.
Franklin talked about how Fleming has brought strong veteran leadership to a room of talented wide receivers and said the wide receiver’s versatility as a route runner and run blocker can impact the game in many ways.
“He’s got a tremendous football IQ,” Franklin said. “He’s a big, strong, physical, tough guy that we believe is going to make the tough catches for us. He’s been a very physical blocker his whole career. He’s a very good special teams player, he’s one of those guys that, as a veteran older player, is very intentional about what he needs to do to be successful, how he practices and his offseason on the Jugs machine and all that stuff.”
