You may have a difficult time finding a more polarizing team to predict for the upcoming 2022 college football season than the Penn State Nittany Lions. Penn State is scattered throughout various way-too-early and post-spring top 25 rankings depending on the writer or outlet, and some preseason rankings this far out have left Penn State off the list entirely.
But Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports has Penn State just managing to work its way into his post-spring top 25 for the upcoming season. Penn State checks in at No. 24 on Dodd’s post-spring list, one spot ahead of a College Football Playoff team from last season, Cincinnati.
Here’s what Dodd had to say about Penn State looking ahead to the 2022 season;
The season went south when QB Sean Clifford went down against Iowa. Clifford is back which might be the difference in the always-tough Big Ten East. James Franklin — 11-11 the last two seasons — has security with a new 10-year contract.
Not exactly a unique outlook on Penn State, which has plenty of reason to be a bit of a mystery going into the fall. There is no real general consensus on how to evaluate Penn State, it seems, but there are some recurring ideas about the program. Among them is Penn State has talent on the roster, which is backed up by the recruiting rankings and the number of players going off through the NFL draft on an annual basis. Talent on the roster is not in question.
Head coach James Franklin, naturally, has a bit of a target on him. Going 11-11 over the past two seasons can do that to a coach. But, as Dodd states, Franklin is not at all on a hot seat in Happy Valley after locking in his recent 10-year contract extension.
Alabama tops Dodd’s post-spring top 25, followed by Big Ten favorite Ohio State at No. 2. Check out the rest of Dodd’s post-spring rankings here.
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