Penn State Friday Five: Bold predictions and final thoughts before the Lions take on West Virginia

What will happen when Penn State football opens the 2023 season by hosting West Virginia? The Nittany Lions are a 20.5-point favorite ahead of the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff at Beaver Stadium. The betting total is set at 50.5 points. And, head coach James Franklin’s team aims to show the nation why it is the No. 7 team in the country and perhaps better than that by the time 60 minutes are in the books.

The Friday five is back to take a stab at a quintet of bold predictions ahead of kickoff. We’ll revisit them after the game to see how we did.

1. Kaytron Allen will hit a milestone

Sophomore running back Kaytron Allen is 133 yards away from eclipsing the 1,000 career yards mark at Penn State. Our first bold prediction says he breaks that total on Saturday night. The Florida native had two 100-plus yard games a year ago (111 against Central Michigan and 117 against Rutgers). All the talk this offseason has focused on Nick Singleton, and with good reason. Both will carry the ball plenty against the Mountaineers. But, we’ll back Allen to outshine his classmate in this contest and set a career single-game rushing yards high while also going over 1,000 rushing yards for his career.

2. Dante Cephas will catch his first touchdown at Penn State

Penn State was hopeful that former Kent State receiver Dante Cephas would come in and take control of the open third receiver job ahead of the 2023 season. It hasn’t happened. So, the veteran pass catcher will rotate in that role against WVU with Liam Clifford and Omari Evans, among others.

With that being said, we’ll be surprised if Cephas does not get a fair amount of run on Saturday night, and after the hype train started and stopped throughout the summer, we’re betting it will start rolling down the tracks again once Cephas catches his first touchdown pass as a Nittany Lion. If he does, it would be the 13th of his career.

3. Kobe King will lead the Lions in tackles

This space is a big believer in Kobe King being talked about a step below his brother, cornerback Kalen King, by the time the season ends. That may sound like a slight, but it’s actually a pretty good place to be. Kalen will be an All-American. Kobe will be an All-Big Ten linebacker.

The redshirt sophomore from Michigan looks as good as he’s ever had in a Penn State uniform. And, there is plenty of buzz to backup the physical changes King has made this offseason. Expect him to clean up plenty of West Virginia runs on Saturday, which will make him the Lions’ leading tackler in Week 1.

4. Penn State will miss a field goal

James Franklin would not say who his starting kicker is for the West Virginia game on Wednesday night. Whether he was being coy or genuinely didn’t know is up for debate. But, we side with the latter, simply because we’ve heard plenty about competition this offseason but not much about anyone truly standing out.

Sander Sahaydak would be the post-time favorite to win the job over Alex Felkins. Either could come out and boom the first field goal they are asked to attempt. Doing so would quell many nerves on the sideline and in the stands. But, it’s hard to be bullish about this kicking game until we see it in action. Thus, we make our first pessimistic prediction for Penn State here.

5. The Lions will cover and the under will hit

Let’s wrap up with a look at the spread and total. If you missed our staff predictions, find them here. This writer picked the game 38-6, which would equal a Penn Sate cover of the -20.5 point spread while the game total will go under 50.5. It goes without saying that these score predictions usually end up being wrong. But, no matter what the final score is, we like the Lions to cover and the under to hit. If wagering, do so responsibly!

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