The full first week of college football has arrived, folks. With that comes the highly anticipated start to the 2025 Penn State football season.

Following a 13-3 season in 2024, arguably the best in the James Franklin era, the Nittany Lions have garnered significant hype from the national media. In fact, Penn State’s preseason AP Poll ranking of No. 2 is the highest it has received since the 1997 season, when the Nittany Lions were ranked No. 1.

A large part of the attention garnered is because of the returning production on both sides of the ball. Penn State returns 14 starters from a year ago, good enough for fifth-best in the country, but it also has a ton of new talent looking to make a name for themselves in the basic blues on Saturday.

The Nittany Lions begin the season with a few out-of-conference tests, starting with Mountain West foe Nevada on Saturday. Let’s take a look at the Wolf Pack squad to get folks ready for the matchup.

The Team

In the nicest way possible, Nevada did not have a great season in 2024. The Wolf Pack went 3-10 without a single win in conference play. They did, however, beat Troy, Eastern Washington, and Oregon State.

A theme for the games the Wolf Pack did win was efficient quarterback play from Brendon Lewis. In wins, Lewis threw a combined 72.4% completion percentage, while in losses averaged just 65.5%. This theme was also seen through the passer rating, as he had a 158.6 rating in wins and a 127.9 in losses.

Now, it’s important to note that when the Wolf Pack did find success, it was often more about the other team than them. Against FCS side Eastern Washington, Nevada had the better athletes and showed it throughout the game. While facing similar recruiting classes talent-wise in the Mountain West, Nevada was handled often by teams like Hawaii (34-13) and Colorado State (38-21).

The Wolf Pack’s head coach, Jeff Choate, is entering his second full season with the team after taking over in December of 2023. Since getting the job in Reno, Nevada, Choate has a record of 3-10 and has yet to get a conference win as head coach.

Before joining the Wolf Pack, Choate had a plethora of position coaching gigs at schools like Texas, Utah State, Boise State, and Florida. His jump from Texas came after a year as the co-defensive coordinator, where he helped the Longhorn defense lead the Big 12 in rushing defense, red zone defense, scoring defense, and total defense.

Nevada’s offensive coordinator is also entering his second year in Reno after he received a promotion from quarterback and receivers coach in January 2025. David Gilbertson does not have any previous offensive coordinator experience at the Division I level, but he did help develop wide receiver Jaden Smith into an NFL receiver.

Kane Ioane, the defensive coordinator, does have experience with play calling on the defensive side of the ball for Choate. He was on the 2019 Montana State staff with Choate, when the Bobcats went 11-4 and reached the FCS semifinals. He also enters his second season with the Wolf Pack on Saturday.

Despite positivity within the program as the coaching staff matures another year heading into 2025, Nevada was picked to finish last once again in the Mountain West in the preseason poll done by media and coaches. With that being said, any team that boasts 54 new players from the transfer portal is impossible to predict and can cause problems for even the best of staffs in the country.

Offense

Something the Wolf Pack has going for them heading into 2025 is a new-look offense that garnered some local buzz throughout summer camp.

In 2024, Nevada averaged 23.08 points per game while running for 163.5 yards a game and throwing for 212.62 yards a game. While these numbers are alright, the Wolf Pack’s new offense will have to do much better to keep up with Penn State’s firepower.

The first player to note is sixth-year quarterback and Nebraska transfer Chubba Purdy. In 2024, Purdy made seven appearances, yet he only led the Wolf Pack in passing yards in one game. This is mainly due to his limited passing attempts at 25, allowing for just 239 yards passing on the season to go with one touchdown and one interception.

Another player the Wolf Pack faithful are excited about is Utah State transfer running back Herschel Turner. For the Aggies, he ran 79 times for 405 yards and four touchdowns, but he will take on a larger role for Nevada, likely splitting touches with Ky Woods.

Nevada also has a decent wide receiver room made up of Marcus Bellon, Nevada’s top returning pass catcher, Jordan Brown, a Texas Tech transfer entering his sixth college season, and Nate Burleson II, who has been with the Wolf Pack since 2022 and is known for his speed.

The offensive line for Nevada is a point of interest when compared Penn State’s uncertainty on the defensive line. With Zuriah Fisher still recovering from an injury, true freshman Chaz Coleman is expected to line up against the opposition of Dani Dennis Sutton to start the game. While Coleman has zero experience playing college football, all of the starting five for the Wolf Pack started every single game in the 2024 season. Nevada is sure to miss left tackle Isaiah World, though, who moved on to Oregon in the offseason.

Defense

Defense has to be a point of emphasis for the Wolf Pack in 2025 after surrendering over 28 points per game a year ago. This is especially true after the Choate and Ioane hirings, two coaches with strong defensive backgrounds.

For Nevada, they chose to attack the portal for almost a completely new unit, with just one returning starter expected to start again in 2025. That player is defensive tackle Thomas Witte from Anchorage, Alaska. The 6’3″ 275-pounder has amassed 73 tackles, one sack, and two fumble returns in three seasons. He was noted by Franklin as the strong point of the defensive line in his game-week press conference on Monday.

Players such as Dylan LaBarbera, who made 28 tackles in the final four games of Nevada’s season after taking over the starting role, and Kasen Kinchen, a former Washington State and Washington walk on with only FBS games under his belt, will need to step up big time if the Wolf Pack want to have any chance against Penn State or its future Mountain West Opponents.

The rest of the defense, though, is relatively unknown. A decent transfer portal class could be the good news the program has been waiting for, but only time will tell.

Special Teams

Special teams can win and lose a team game throughout the season, and there’s a good chance Nevada will need to lean on its kicking squad quite a bit. Unfortunately for them, just like the defense, the Wolf Pack doesn’t know what it has in the special teams unit.

The expected starting punter is Bailey Ettridge, a 27-year-old freshman from Australia who the Wolf Pack originally scouted from coaching program Prokick Australia. The expected kicker, Joe McFadden, played three years at UConn before taking 2024 off to work on Wall Street.

The returners are a bit of a bright spot for Nevada as Marcus Bellon made the Mountain West preseason all-league team at punt returner, and kick returner Ky Woods averaged 24 yards per kickoff return last season. With that being said, the returners are subject to change with no starter being officially announced.