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Penn State Comes in at #3 in Preseason Coaches Poll
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
I’m not gonna do what everyone thinks I’m going to do and shit on Penn State. I won’t do that hacky thing where I point out their cake walk to the CFP Semis and how the Big 10 Champion Oregon got a tougher road than they did. That would be childish and uncouth when they just reached their highest preseason Coaches Poll ranking since 1999:
WE ARE!!
Listen, in my fair and objective analysis I know they’re a legitimate #3. Drew Allar apparently has weapons now, they have the best running back tandem in college football, and they stole Ohio State’s defensive coordinator in the middle of the night. This team looks set up to win it all. You could argue they’re #1 team in the country, but the winner of OSU and Texas in Week 1 deserves the top spot. So as long as they don’t blow it against powerhouse *checks notes* Nevada they’ll be #2 before Labor Day. It should be an awesome season in Happy Valley and they should compete for the National Championship.
It’s just that.. he’s still there.
Who?
BIG GAME JAMES!
The Nittany Lions will continue to be at the kids table until Big Game James can prove that he can win the big one. He’s had opportunity after opportunity to prove to everyone he can do it and he’s 3-19 against top-10 teams since he got to Penn State. Then he’ll go and complain about the tiny airport. Is he a good coach? Absolutely. Is he great? Not even close. I feel like we’re going to get a classic PSU year. They’ll probably lose both top-5 matchups to OSU and Oregon, end up 10-2, lose in the Big 10 Championship because Oregon or OSU blows it against Michigan in the last game of the season, they’ll lose the Big 10 title game, but sneak in the backdoor to the CFP and Franklin can hold his hat on that for another year. Rinse and repeat. He’s got the greatest PR staff in the world. Even the guy wearing the bluest of Nittany glasses has to laugh at the fact they had to play the ACC runner-up and Mountain West Champ on their way to final four. At least it saved them from another OSU beating.
P.S. I guess the coaches forgot this guy is in charge of Temple now:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com