STATE COLLEGE – Chubba Purdy entered the transfer portal after last season before deciding to stay at Nevada.
He probably didn’t consider where the Wolf Pack was opening the 2025 season.
Dani Dennis-Sutton and the Penn State defense made life miserable for the quarterback and Nevada in a 46-11 rout before a sun-drenched crowd of 106,915 Saturday at Beaver Stadium.
Dennis-Sutton, a preseason All-American, sacked Purdy once, made 1.5 other tackles in the backfield and forced two fumbles.
“He’s going to have a big-time year,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “The thing that separates him is his motor. It’s always on 100 (mph). From the snap to the whistle, he plays his tail off.
“He is hungry. He is motivated. He is driven. He wants to be great. This guys eats, sleeps and dreams football. He wants to be special.”
The second-ranked Nittany Lions thumped Nevada and outgained the prohibitive underdog by a considerable 438-202 margin. They forced three turnovers, including the first career interception for defensive tackle Zane Durant.
Former Gov. Mifflin star Nick Singleton rushed for two short touchdowns, backfield mate Kaytron Allen scored once and backup quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer ran for a TD in the fourth quarter.
Allen finished with 43 yards on eight carries, and Singleton had 19 on eight attempts. Allen had the longest run of the two with his 12-yard score.
Penn State scored on eight of its nine possessions, which was the good news. The bad news was that the Lions failed to reach the end zone on four trips inside the Nevada 25.
“We have to finish some drives on offense and not end with field goals,” Franklin said, “although the blessing in disguise was that we got good field goal work. We were not as explosive as I would have liked to be.
“He (Nevada’s Jeff Choate) is a smart coach. He does a nice job. They snapped the ball under five seconds every time. They were going to shorten the game. They were going to play bend-but-don’t-break defense and not give up the explosive plays.”
Drew Allar was brilliant with a new set of wide receivers, completing 22-of-26 passes for 217 yards. USC transfer Kyron Hudson made six catches for 89 yards and one TD and Syracuse transfer Trebor Pena had seven receptions for 74 yards.
“I thought overall the offense had a really good first game,” Allar said. “There’s one thing I’d like to fix. When we get opportunities in the red zone, we have to capitalize on them. It’s good that we got points in general, but you would love to have touchdowns in those scenarios.”
Kennett High School grad Ryan Barker made all four of his field goal tries, from 28, 28, 32 and 39 yards for Penn State.
The Lions couldn’t cross the goal line after defensive tackle Zane Durant returned his first career interception 14 yards to the Nevada 6 in the first quarter and after King Mack returned a kickoff 73 yards to the Wolf Pack 18 in the second quarter.
“I read his eyes,” Durant said of the pass thrown by Purdy. “I wasn’t really surprised. I knew it was coming to me, but I kind of tiptoed in. I was mad.”
In the first half, Alllar completed 14-of-17 passes for 133 yards and a 31-yard touchdown to Hudson.
The Lions defense forced two turnovers, the first when Dennis-Sutton stripped the ball from running back Herschel Turner and cornerback A.J. Harris recovered and the second when Xavier Gilliam pressured Purdy and Durant intercepted.
Penn State made its best drive of the half with less than two minutes to go. Allar opened it with an 11-yard shovel pass to Singleton, completed a fourth-down throw to Devonte Ross and found Hudson in the end zone with 23 seconds left in the half for a 27-3 lead at the break.
“We have trust for each other,” Hudson said about his connection with Allar. “It’s special.”
So is Dennis-Sutton, who picked up where he left off in three 2024-25 College Football Playoff games. He had a second forced fumble in the third quarter when he knocked the ball loose from Turner again and set up Singleton’s second TD.
It’s nearly impossible to block him one-on-one.
“He’s unreal,” linebacker Tony Rojas said about Dennis-Sutton. “He’s like a character in a video game.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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