The issue ended up being versions. The version string returned with glGetString(GL_VERSION)
indicated 4.2 compatibility context was being used.
Since the triangle calls in the paintGL
method were removed in 3.1 (if I recall correctly), it was obvious why they weren't drawing anything. Further, no errors were being thrown because it was in compat. mode.
Because I couldn't get the version down below 3.0 on the QGLWidget (due to the fact that QT requires 2.1, as I was informed on another message board), I set the version to 3.0 and tried using some 3.0 drawing calls and it ended up working.