James Franklin sees no value in looking back on Penn State-West Virginia history
After Pittsburgh and Syracuse, Penn State has played more games all-time against West Virginia than any other school. But for the first time since 1992, the Nittany Lions and Mountaineers finally renew their old regional rivalry when Penn State hosts West Virginia for a primetime showdown on national television. Because Penn State has not played a game against West Virginia since 1992, Penn State head coach James Franklin hasn’t felt it necessary to provide any history lessons to his players in preparation of this week’s season opener.
“When you talk about history, recent history, I don’t think there’s been a game played while these guys were alive,” Franklin said to reporters during his regularly scheduled media availability.
“It’s like this is very similar to another game that we played here recently that there was a ton of questions,” Franklin said, seemingly alluding to a recent four-game series Penn State played with Pittsburgh. Ironically, West Virginia and Pittsburgh renewed their bitter rivalry last year and will play the second game in a four-year scheduling agreement this season. “We talk about the history of the game. That’s what it is, it’s history,” said Franklin.
Penn State has faced West Virginia 55 times from 1909 up until 1992, a season before Penn State’s move to the Big Ten in 1993. Like many of Penn State’s former regional series as an independent, West Virginia has long been absent from Penn State’s non-conference schedule. Penn State is 44-9-2 all-time against West Virginia, and 31-3 at home.
According to Franklin, there is little value in spending time discussing the history of this series. Instead, Franklin feels it is more important to spend time focusing on doing all of the things needed to win a game. Knowing that Kerry Collins passed for 249 yards and two touchdowns in the most recent meeting in the series will not help the offensive line of today pace running lanes for Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen to the end zone.
“Again, that history, although it would be nice to take some time and talk about the history of college football and the history of this region and some of these games, there’s just not a whole lot of value in that in terms of getting our guys ready to play this game and be successful,” Franklin explained. “There’s not a whole lot of storylines that would make sense for them.”
“We don’t spend a whole lot of time on it because I don’t think there’s a whole lot of relevant information that will impact winning.”
Penn State will visit West Virginia in 2024 to complete the current home-and-home series. No future games between the two schools are currently on the books. Penn State also has no future plans to play Pittsburgh again. Syracuse is back on the books for a future home-and-home series. Penn State will host Syracuse in 2027 and make a trip up to New York in 2028 if the non-conference schedule remains unchanged. Big Ten expansion has yet to impact any currently scheduled non-conference matchups for Penn State.
Penn State will also be adding Temple back to the non-conference schedule with a home-and-home series scheduled for 2026 (in Philadelphia) and 2027 (in State College).
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