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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-08-20 13:19:29+00:00.

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.

Penn State (high = 1 (4 votes), low = 7) is the preseason #3 team in this countdown, projected to be the 2nd best team in the B1G (though only 0.2 points from changing both of those statements). James Franklin led the Nittany Lions to their first ever 13 win season in 2024, failing to hold a 4th quarter lead over Notre Dame and then seeing a final minute Drew Allar interception in an attempt to drive for a potential game winning FG instead set up the Irish to kick their own, moving Penn State to their closest brush with a national championship since the JoePa days. Now as he embarks on his 12th season in State College, there’s lots of buzz about their chances of getting back over the hump.

Roster outlook

The main reason why there is so much buzz is tied to the returning production stat. Namely, so many of the teams at the top have much less of it than does Penn State. All 3 of the teams that beat the Nits last season will be debuting new starting QBs, while Penn State has Drew Allar back. In all, Penn State ranks 33rd in returning production, behind only Clemson among the top 10 teams in this countdown, with most of that coming on offense (where they rank 14th overall). In addition to Allar, the Nittany Lions return both 1,000 yard rushers (Kaytron Allen and Nicholas Singleton) and… honestly, did Penn State have actual WRs last season? It’s hard to tell because their single biggest receiving threat, TE Tyler Warren, was drafted in the 1st round by the Indianapolis Colts, and he had more than double the number of receptions than any other player on the team (not to mention 200 rushing yards – that has to be a record for a TE!). Most Penn State fans are probably more concerned about the loss of backup QB Beau Pribula to the portal than any of the WRs. On the other side of the ball, there were more significant losses, none bigger than DE Abdul Carter, the #3 overall pick in the draft. They also lost 3 other defensive starters, LB Kobe King and DBs Kevin Winston and Jaylen Reed. Franklin did a reasonable job of recruiting, bringing in the 15th ranked national class, but was fairly selective with the portal, snagging one projected defensive starter (North Carolina LB Amare Campbell) but crucially restocking the entire starting WR corps (Trebor Pena from Syracuse, Kyron Hudson from USC and Devonte Ross from Troy) who totaled more than 2,400 yards and 23 TDs last year (compared to the 1,400 and 10 from the top 3 WRs who lined up in the blue and white in 2024). On defense, the potential biggest change will be replacing DC Tom Allen with former Ohio State DC Jim Knowles.

Schedule and outlook

The schedule sets up well for Penn State to get off to a fast start and give those new WRs a chance to develop chemistry with Allar. They don’t leave State College until the leaves start to change, hosting Nevada, FIU and Villanova in their OOC and then getting a bye before welcoming Oregon into Beaver Stadium for a dreaded night Whiteout game in week 5. They then make a cross country trip to the Rose Bowl to play UCLA and come back to take on Northwestern before a potentially tricky road trip to Kinnick to play Iowa. They then get a mutual bye week with their next next opponent before the B1Ggest clash of their season, that November 1 game against Ohio State in the Horseshoe (B1G Noon fever – catch it!). They wrap up the season hosting Indiana, at Michigan State, home against SEC Dark Horse contender Nebraska and close it out at Rutgers. There are enough heavy hitters here that Penn State doesn’t have to be perfect in the regular season to get into the CFP, and as long as the defense is up to the task and those WRs are even somewhat productive, the Nittany Lions should be in and are a serious contender for a first round bye (whether they really want it or not).