MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — To record its first win of the season, West Virginia will have to do something it has done many times before.

The Mountaineers are undefeated in 21 meetings against FCS-level opponents and will look to continue that streak when they host Albany at Mountaineer Field on Saturday at 6 p.m. The game can be seen on ESPN+.

WVU is trying to rebound from its fourth straight season-opening loss and second to Penn State in as many years. The Mountaineers wasted two prime chances to take an early lead and then faltered in the middle two quarters in a 34-12 loss to the Nittany Lions.

“The game wasn’t critical to our success. The frustrating thing is we get to a point where we play a game on the national stage and we just don’t deliver,” said WVU head coach Neal Brown, now in his sixth season holding that title. “There’s no denying that. Our guys have seen it. You have to accept it, learn from it and grow from it. That’s kind of where we are. Our season is still ahead of us. There have been a lot of good West Virginia teams that have been beaten by Penn State and then rebounded and had special years. There’s no reason this team can’t do that too.”

The Mountaineers are favorites by more than four touchdowns against the Great Danes and will likely have an easier time in Week 2, even though their opponent’s season, which culminated in an appearance in the national semifinals, was nine months ago.

Albany (1-0) defeated Long Island 27-21 in its season opener last Saturday and is training with a host of new players under 11-year head coach Greg Gattuso.

“We have an opponent this week that plays a high level of football,” Brown said. “The thing that stood out to me most as I watched them last night and this morning is that they are extremely well coached.”

For WVU, this week will be all about correcting the mistakes made against PSU, but there is plenty of room for improvement on offense and defense.

The Mountaineers lost 457-246, managed fewer than 100 rushing yards (85) for the first time since 2022, completed just 161 yards on 29 passes and converted 4 of 14 third downs.

PSU was able to outpace West Virginia’s defense for long stretches and was evenly matched with 235 yards through the air on just 18 attempts and 222 rushing yards, all but 49 of which came in the final two quarters.

“We didn’t practice or play well enough to beat a strong opponent. I’m not sure we could have beaten a subpar opponent,” Brown said. “Very inconsistent in two out of three periods. For an experienced team, I was disappointed in our performance. I take responsibility for that. The performance on the field is on me. I wasn’t very happy about it. I’m sure our fans weren’t very happy about it either.”

After making it clear that he was committed to improving his completion percentage of 53 from last season during the offseason, WVU quarterback Garrett Greene again struggled in that regard, hitting just 15 of his 28 shots.

“We’re a much better team. We know that,” said wide receiver Preston Fox. “We’re taking responsibility and we’re going to show you all next week.”

Tailbacks Jahiem White and CJ Donaldson are looking to increase productivity, and Brown admitted that White should carry the ball more than eight times and touch it 10 times in the season opener.

On defense, WVU failed to generate a pass rush and did not manage a sack or a quarterback hurry. The Mountaineers also allowed a number of long passes, including two of at least 50 yards.

“Alignment and communication issues and all that will be addressed,” said defender Fatorma Mulbah. “That’s the key takeaway for the improvements we need to make in the coming weeks.”

Albany has a new quarterback and essentially a completely new defense after losing a number of standout players from its 2023 team.

Against Long Island, sophomore Myles Burkett completed 12 of 26 passes for 165 yards and a touchdown. Nearly half of his yards came on a touchdown pass – a 75-yard pass to Seven McGee, who previously played for both Jackson State and Oregon.

Tailback is perhaps the most established position for the Great Danes, with sophomore Griffin Woodell returning after earning the Colonial Athletic Association’s Offensive Rookie of the Year award last season with 892 yards and eight touchdowns.

Waddell was productive again in Week 1, running for 85 yards and a touchdown.

“(Week 1) didn’t go the way you thought it would and that’s a cause for disappointment. You feel like you have a team good enough to win the game and you just don’t play well, so that’s disappointing for a coach or a player,” Brown said. “But this is also a business and you have another game to play. You can feel sorry for yourself until about (Monday afternoon). It’s over and you move on.

“I’ll talk to all of you about the game, and then I’ll go ahead and go into a bunker, so to speak, to prepare for Albany and prepare for the game. You have to put it away, but you have to learn from it. If you don’t learn from it, you’re going to repeat it. We made some mistakes in our preparation and execution that we can’t make again, whether we’re playing Albany, Pitt, Kansas or Oklahoma State. We play a lot of really good football teams, so we have to correct those things.”