It has been a long time since the Penn State football had this amount of hype coming into the season. The Nittany Lions are typically expected to be one of the better teams in the Big Ten, but this year is different. After going to the College Football Playoff semis a year ago, James Franklin and Penn State return a plethora of talent that could've gone to the NFL, and a lot of people expect them to be a legit national title contender this year. ESPN's Heather Dinich thinks that the Nittany Lions are the best team in the country.
The preseason Coaches Poll was released on Monday, and the Penn State football team came in at No. 3. Not a bad ranking at all, but Heather Dinich thinks that the Nittany Lions should be the No. 1 team in the country over Texas and Ohio State.
“Penn State should be the number one team in the country,” Dinich said during an episode of Get Up. “Look on paper, they have far fewer questions than Texas. Drew Allar is going to be a better quarterback, he's going to improve his NFL draft stock, and he's also got two of the best running backs in the country, Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, and the defensive coordinator hire Jim Knowles from Ohio State, I think is going to be a secret weapon. When Ohio State hired him, their defense was 44th in the country, and then afterwards, they were fourth.”
There's no doubt about it, Penn State definitely has the tools to be successful this season. In terms of the blue print for success in this era of college football, the Nittany Lions have everything. They have experience everywhere, from the coaching staff to the players on the field.
Offensively, the big question mark going into the offseason was the wide receiver room. So, the Nittany Lions went out and hit the transfer portal hard, and that doesn't seem like a concern anymore. Penn State has a ton of returning talent everywhere else on that side of the football.
Defensively, the Nittany Lions are in tremendous shape. They are going to get pressure on the quarterback, and that will make life easier for an already extremely talented secondary. This team is loaded with talent at every position.
The issue for James Franklin and the Penn State football team in recent years has been the inability to win the big game. That hasn't been done yet, but Franklin having his most talented squad ever should help the cause.
