Penn State vs Villanova preview | Bye week and White Out recruiting on the horizon

The Penn State football team has one final non-conference game on Saturday when it hosts the Villanova Wildcats at Beaver Stadium. It will likely be a slow recruiting weekend with an FCS team in town, but recruiting is about to heat up. The team goes on a bye following the game, which means the coaches will be hitting the road to recruit for a few days before returning to prepare for Oregon in the 2025 White Out Game. Today, we’ll do an early preview of the coming weeks, plus discuss Wednesday night practice, and preview the game on Saturday.

Penn State practice update

Last night, the Penn State football team held open practice to the media, and Blue White Illustrated was there to gather intel about the team. We’ll discuss what we saw and heard from the Nittany Lions to start the show. Reporter Sean Fitz checked out the defensive side of the ball and wrote notes on his observations last night. He’ll discuss some of those, plus you can see our offensive highlights from last night during the live show.

Bye week and White Out Preview

While the recruiting lists to begin the season have been much better than expected, the team’s recruiting intensity and importance are about to hit a fever pitch for the next few weeks. After the game against Villanova, Penn State enters its first bye week of the season. Typically on bye weeks, the coaching staff hits the road for a few days before coming back to Happy Valley to prepare for the next game. We’ll preview how that process works, and what fans should expect from the next week in terms of recruiting news and visits. Is it too early to start talking about flip targets? Fitz will discuss how the process works.

From there, the team hosts Oregon in the White Out for one of the most anticipated games at Beaver Stadium in quite some time. Over 60 recruits are already confirmed for the event and we’ll do a quick preview of the players that stand out from the crowded list of high school stars.

Villanova game preview

Finally, the team still needs to win against Villanova on Saturday. Yet after two games that didn’t feel as dominant as they might have, will Penn State surge past the Wildcats in the final non-conference game? We’ll discuss the game and the areas where Penn State can grow and learn from the schematic tendencies that Villanova presents to them. Join the show to hear more about what to expect this weekend!