West Virginia Football: Mountaineers beat Penguins, but should we be impressed?

West Virginia football took care of business in their home-opener on Saturday, defeating the Youngstown State Penguins 52-17.

The Mountaineers and Penguins were in a grind Saturday evening, playing much of their Week 2 contest in a downpour. West Virginia built a 21-7 lead heading into the half behind two touchdowns from Gary Jennings and another from freshman running back Leddie Brown.

MORE: Best individual seasons under Dana Holgorsen at WVU

Once the second half rolled around, though, the home team started to pull away. Heisman-hopeful Will Grier continued adding to his resume, linking up with Jennings for a third touchdown and finishing with 332 yards on 21-of-26 passing; Dominique Maiden caught Grier’s fourth touchdown toss.

Brown amassed 115 yards and a score on 15 carries for the ‘Eers, but he wasn’t the only running back to impress versus Youngstown State. Martell Pettaway added 77 yards on a dozen carries. Kennedy McKoy scampered for 76 yards on 11 touches – including a touchdown – while Alec Sinkfield rumbled for 24 yards and a score on five attempts before leaving the game with an injury.

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Senior wide receiver David Sills was more of a decoy than anything, as he only caught two passes for 33 yards. He still got to celebrate with his position group as Jennings and Marcus Simms had excellent performances. Jennings finished with six catches for 97 yards and three scores, while Simms tallied eight catches for 119 yards.

The Mountaineer defense was night-and-day from possession-to-possession, one drive coming out to force a 3-and-out while getting toasted in less than a handful of plays on other drives. Whether it was because they overlooked their opponent, the weather, or something else – the WVU defense just didn’t seem to put it all together on Saturday.

Too many times were players in the secondary beat deep. None of those occasions resulted in big scoring plays, but against Oklahoma – who the ‘Eers should be measuring themselves against every week – those plays will result in touchdowns. Thankfully, Tony Gibson’s defense will have time to clean things up.

Another week, another win – that’s all you can ask for in college football. Head coach Dana Holgorsen will regroup, get back to the drawing board, and hopefully work out the kinks prior to their bout with NC State in Week 3.