There was a lot of Week 1 stuff on Saturday night in Beaver Stadium. Missed tackles. Confusion on blocking assignments. Burned timeouts in the middle of both halves. We won’t talk about the field goal kicking.
But there was also a lot of stuff that you could see — and, if you’re a Penn State fan, desperately hope to see — holding up in October and November. And while the Nittany Lions’ season-opening 38-15 win over a game but outmatched West Virginia team won’t turn many heads around the country away from, uh, Deion Sanders postgame interviews, it can be a pretty damn encouraging night if you view it as pretext for the season at large.
Some of the stuff we thought we knew — Nicky and the Fatman would again be awesome, Manny Diaz would bring pressure, Mike Yurcich would draw up some fun stuff — turned out to be true, but some of the stuff we thought we knew — Whither Chop Robinson? Was the offensive line really any better? Is linebacker truly a strength on this defense? — will perhaps require further examination at later dates.
