Penn State football opens as massive Week 1 favorite

Kickoff in Happy Valley is still over three months away. But on Monday, we got our first look at how Las Vegas thinks Penn State football will match up against its Week 1 opponent, the Nevada Wolfpack.

DraftKings Sportsbook recently released its game lines for the opening week of the college football season. The Nittany Lions open as more than a six-score favorite, giving 43.5 points to their Mountain West Conference foe. A game total has not been announced.

August 30 will be the first time that Penn State and Nevada have battled on the gridiron. The Wolfpack enter 2025 off a 3-10 season under second-year head coach Jeff Choate. Prior to his time in Reno, Choate was co-defensive coordinator at Texas during the Longhorns’ 2023 College Football Playoff run.

To date, no kickoff time has been announced for the season-opening matchup. Penn State begins the 2025 campaign with four consecutive home games, capped off by a rematch of last year’s Big Ten Championship against likely top-10 opponent Oregon.

“What I just talked to the team about in there is, I like where we’re at, but we got a ton of work to do between now and Nevada,” James Franklin said following April’s Blue-White Game. “And on top of that, we got to be intentional about our work. Every single one of us has got to be intentional about our work between now, training camp, and Nevada.”

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