Beating Penn State Could Be the Ultimate Turning Point for WVU Football

West Virginia has a chance to do something special in Week 1.

Dan Rainville / USA TODAY NETWORK

Things got a little stale in Morgantown after Neal Brown produced three losing seasons in his first four years on the job at West Virginia. It felt like Brown was a dead man walking heading into the 2024 season as just about everyone, myself included, started thinking of potential candidates to replace him following the 2023 season.

And then the 2023 season happened.

West Virginia stunned everyone by going 8-4 in the regular season and finishing the year off with a convincing bowl win over North Carolina, giving the Mountaineers their best win total since their 10-win 2016 season. This was the first sign that Brown has the program heading in the right direction. The next step was player retention and for the second straight offseason, WVU was able to hold onto just about every key piece of its roster with the exception of defensive linemen Mike Lockhart and Tomiwa Durojaiye.

Now, you start to look up and down the roster and start to think, man, the future looks pretty bright in Morgantown. Garrett Greene returns at quarterback while Nicco Marchiol gets one more year to ready himself to take over the reins in 2025. You have one of the most explosive rushing duos in Jahiem White and CJ Donaldson (with talented help behind them). A receiving corps that is centered around three underclassmen (Traylon Ray, Rodney Gallagher III, Hudson Clement) and possibly four with DayDay Farmer. And a defense that is starting to add quality depth at each level.

There's a real path for West Virginia to not only contend for a Big 12 title in 2024, but in the years to come as well. The one thing that can really accelerate "the climb" is beating No. 8 Penn State to open up this season next Saturday. Yes, it's one game of a twelve-game regular season but it's a chance for WVU to show the hype around the program is real. All eyes will be on this matchup with FOX's Big Noon Kickoff hosting their Week 1 show in Morgantown, and Georgia vs. Clemson in the Aflac Kickoff.

No one will be stunned if Clemson takes down the No. 1 team in the country. They've been there, done that. But WVU topping Penn State? That will be the topic of conversation throughout the entire first true Saturday of the college football season. That attention will help WVU get more national love and will do wonders for the coaching staff on the recruiting trail.

However, it doesn't just stop there, though. That momentum has to continue throughout the course of non-conference play and then the Big 12 slate. Should WVU make a run at the Big 12 Conference title and get into the College Football Playoff, it could be the season everyone looks back on as the year where the Mountaineers asserted themselves as a perennial Big 12 contender.

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