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Who are the announcers for Penn State-Villanova? Here's who will be on the call for FS1

Greg Pickelby: Greg Pickel09/08/25GregPickel
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A view of the west side of Beaver Stadium at Penn State, which includes the TV broadcast booth. (Pickel/BWI)

Penn State finishes the non-conference portion of its 2025 schedule on Saturday when it welcomes Villanova to Beaver Stadium. Kickoff is at 3:30 p.m. ET. FOX Sports One will broadcast the contest. We already knew all of those details, And now, we know which broadcast crew the network will send to State College for the game.

Connor Onion (play by play) and Mark Helfrich (color commentary) is who fans watching on television will hear during the contest. The Lions were last on FS1 in 2023, according to Steve Sampsell’s tracker for the website Stuff Somers Says.

The Wildcats come to Beaver Stadium fresh off a 24-17 win over Colgate in their season opener last Saturday. Penn State is 2-0 after knocking off Nevada in Week 1 and FIU in Week 2. No point spread is out yet for the contest. BetMGM will likely not release a point spread and total until late Friday or early Saturday morning, if it decides to at all. PSU last met Villanova in 2021. It won that contest 38-17.

“Villanova coming in here, an in-state foe that we got a lot of respect for,” Lions coach James Franklin said on Monday. “I’ve known the head coach, Coach [Mark] Ferrante for a long time. Pretty cool [that] he’s been there 39 years. Former o-line coach, now been the head coach going on 10 years. But the consistency that they’ve had in their program has been awesome, and it’s led to really good things for them.”

Villanova is No. 11 in this week’s FCS poll. That’s up from No. 13 a week ago. Penn State, meanwhile, is No. 2 in both the USA Today coaches poll and the Associated Press top 25 following Week 2.

What’s up with Villanova?

The Wildcats won their 17th straight home game and started their season with a victory by knocking out Colgate. Quarterback Pat McQuaide, a grad student and Nicholls State transfer, tossed a touchdown and threw for 299 yards. He also added a rushing touchdown. The receivers to know are Luke Colella and Lucas Kopecky. They caught five passes for 124 yards and five for 98 and a touchdown, respectively. Linebacker JR Strauss paced the defense with eight tackles. The Wildcats put up 416 yards of total offense.

Weather report

Per Weather.com, the early forecast looks promising for tailgating and watching the game. It reads: “Partly cloudy. High 77F. Winds light and variable.”

Early Penn State-Villanova storylines

–Penn State has not been explosive on offense for two consecutive weeks. Will that change against an FCS opponent? Many fans will be watching the chunk play category closely.

–Who else is excited to see Chaz Coleman in action again after his strip sack on Saturday? The Nittany Lions freshman defensive end will get plenty of run this weekend.

–Can Penn State play its first clean, and complete, 60-minute game of the season? It feels like a must during this final tune-up before the bye week and then a visit from Oregon for the White Out game.