Penn State Visiting WVU Is A Nostalgia Trip Of Days Gone By

By Kyle Golik

As Penn State prepares for a trip to Morgantown to face West Virginia , for many it is one of the best non-conference matchups the 2024 season has to offer. For others, it was a way of life. There were the days when Penn State was the power of all Eastern independents. To give you an idea of how much Penn State was the villain for the Mountain State, in 2000 when Sports Illustrated was doing their best of the 20th century content, one such mention was the “Enemy of State” and Joe Paterno was by far and away the enemy of the state possessing a 26-2 record against West Virginia. It was almost a third certainty in life for Nittany Lion fans, outside of death and taxes, that Penn State would beat West Virginia.

For the Nittany Lions, the nightmares have been few and far between in a “rivalry” where Penn State holds a decisive 49-9-2 advantage. You can go to a few bars in Morgantown who have a piece of the goal post from the 1984 nightmare, the one where “finally” the Mountaineers snapped a 28-game unbeaten streak (27-0-1 from 1956 to 1983).

The Mountaineer fans stormed the field with 35 seconds to go after WVU defensive back Larry Holley intercepted Penn State quarterback John Shaffer’s pass. It will forever be the one where Paterno would forgo the final seconds, darted across the field, shook West Virginia head coach Don Nehlen ’s hand, and grabbed two lineman to block for Paterno as they circumvented the chaos.

The other nightmare was 1988. Penn State wasn’t healthy and Paterno was forced to burn the redshirt of Tony Sacca to play. Sacca’s dismal performance, going 5 for 19 passing for 64 yards and two interceptions were part of a bigger problem for Penn State, which had no answers for West Virginia.

In West Virginia annals, when you say “The Play,” it is romanticized by the Mountaineer faithful and a giant pain point for me. In my few interactions with former West Virginia quarterback Major Harris, I would also get a juke. I was always reminded of Harris’ going the wrong way on the option, juking Penn State linebacker Quintus McDonald out of his cleats, and somehow finding the end zone.

Harris would say of “The Play ,” “I didn’t want to call a timeout and I was getting everybody ready and I forgot which way the play was going, I knew it was an option. I just didn’t know which side we were running it to. To be honest, it was like a bootleg where the guys go one way and the quarterback goes the other.” The 51-30 win by West Virginia would be the only time a Penn State team would ever surrender 50 or more points in a game under Joe Paterno.

Beyond those two outliers, Penn State has dominated the rivalry. That was displayed on the first pass of Drew Allar ’s time as a starter, when he connected with KeAndre Lambert-Smith for a 72-yard touchdown. Even after all those years of not playing, the roles were still the same. Penn State head coach James Franklin was like Paterno, always coaching his team to the end and his players playing to the end, when he had quarterback Beau Pribula score a garbage time touchdown in the end to give Penn State a 38-15 win.

The touchdown elicited a response from West Virginia head coach Neal Brown that started out like how Don Nehlen would say, "Nah, who cares?” Brown responded ,"I took timeouts,” in a kind of “aw shucks” kind of tone to Brown adding his flair to the rivalry, "I wouldn't have done it, but it doesn’t bother me, stuff like that, what comes around goes around. At some point, it’ll come back around. I don't know when. It doesn't bother me. I’m not upset about it."

Don’t let Brown fool you, it bothered him, and every Mountaineer player has seen that play over and over again. When Franklin has his weekly tweet where he goes “West Virginia, West Virginia, West Virginia,” that is part of his 1-0 mentality, it will be another battle in the border war that is Penn State and West Virginia. Whether it was Joe Paterno dueling with Don Nehlen or Bobby Bowden, Art “Pappy” Lewis versus Charles “Rip” Engle and “Doc” Spears versus Hugo Bezdek before them, whether the game decided the winner for the Old Ironside Trophy or Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy, Franklin and Brown are now part of this legendary lineage between programs. Regardless of the outcome, both sides in Week 1 will have a nostalgia trip but one with College Football Playoffs ramifications.