MORGANTOWN, W. Va. – Harrison Wallace III and the other Penn State wide receivers were determined not to have another season like last season.
“I definitely feel like we could have been better,” Wallace said. “We left a lot of things on the field. We worked at it. This was our coming-out party this year.’
A redshirt junior, Wallace made five catches for a career-high 117 yards and two touchdowns for the eighth-ranked Nittany Lions in a 34-12 victory over West Virginia 34-12 in a season opener Saturday at Mountaineer Field.
He also had a big game against the Mountaineers last year with seven receptions for 72 yards.
He caught three passes in four plays Saturday on a first-half drive for gains of 18, 14 and then 50 yards for a touchdown on a crossing pattern. He made a pretty 17-yard grab along the sideline and then made a spectacular 18-yard TD reception on a back-shoulder pass by Drew Allar late in the first half.
“It felt great,” Wallace said. “It was amazing just being out there and making plays with my guys. Omari (Evans) making plays. Drew making big throws. It was a great feeling.”
Evans made a 55-yard catch while being tightly covered to set up Wallace’s TD near the end of the first half.
Four wide receivers, including KeAndre Lambert-Smith, left Penn State after last season after the group struggled. Wallace and the others want to make amends.
“It’s really just the work that we put in,” he said. “We were consistently putting in the hours to make sure we would never have a year like we had last year.”
Scrambling man: Allar showed off his sleeker body Saturday by rushing six times for 44 yards, including three scrambles for first downs.
“We call him Lamar Allar,” Franklin said, referring to Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. “I thought Drew ran better than people expected last year. He’s dropped 10 pounds. He’s done a really good job in the weight room.
“If your quarterback can get you two or three first downs a game with his legs, it changes everything.”
Allar said Franklin has jokingly called him that nickname since his freshman year.
“I definitely feel faster than I did last year,” he said. I dropped 7 to 11 pounds since last season. That comes from training with Coach (Chuck) Losey and the whole strength staff, the best one in the country.”|
Allar also completed 11-of-17 passes for 216 yards and three touchdowns Saturday. In his Penn State career, he has thrown 32 touchdown passes against two interceptions.
“Drew was out of this world today with the reads and the decisions he was making,” Wallace said. “Everything that you all saw today we were doing consistently during camp. It was not really a surprise to me.”
Singleton’s home runs: Much was made about Penn State running back Nick Singleton not being explosive last season compared to his spectacular freshman year.
The former Gov. Mifflin star made two 40-yard runs, one for a touchdown, in the win over West Virginia. He had none last year after he had seven in 2022. He rushed 13 times for 114 yards.
“It felt great,” Singleton said about his TD run in the third quarter. “I loved that. I missed that, man. Shout out to the O-line doing their jobs and the tight ends. It was a whole team effort. It felt good.”
Singleton’s performance did not surprise at least one of his teammates.
“Nick is going to work his tail off,” Wallace said. “I’m just glad he went out there and got the runs that he did. An explosive run game opens up the pass game and an explosive pass game opens up the run game. When we’re doing both, it’s hard to defend.”
Source: Berkshire mont
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