Penn State has completed the first half of the regular season and finds itself sitting in a great spot on its quest to compete in this year expanded College Football Playoff. The Nittany Lions sit at no. 3 in the major polls during their bye week as they prepare for a road game at Wisconsin and a home game against Ohio State in the next couple of weeks.
With Penn State sitting on a bye week, we decided to get together as a staff and share some of our options on the Nittany Lions before the second half gets started. We started off with quick midseason assessments of Penn State and continued with a look at our biggest surprises from the first half of the year. We also discuss what Penn State needs to improve in the second half of the season. But after getting to the midseason point with a 6-0 record, our staff makes midyear predictions on Penn State’s final record in the regular season.
Brad: After beating USC, it’s hard to envision Penn State will drop a contest outside of the Ohio State game coming on the first Saturday in November. My prediction is they will go 11-1, beating Wisconsin under the lights on the road since they’re coming off a bye, but losing to the Buckeyes in a hard-fought game in Beaver Stadium. After that, they’ll beat Washington during the White Out and should cruise against Purdue, Minnesota and Maryland to close the regular season.
Charlie: I am still going with my preseason prediction of 11-1 with a loss to Ohio State. The Buckeyes are an elite team on both sides of the ball and until Penn State actually beats them I’m going to stick with the Nittany Lions coming up short on November 2.
Shayne: 11-1, losing against Ohio State.
Kevin: My preseason prediction for Penn State’s final record was 10-2. I am not totally backing off of that just yet, but I do think this is an 11-1 team coming together. Before the season started, I felt the Nittany Lions would lose at home to Ohio State and then lose a road game at either USC or Wisconsin. After picking up an overtime win at USC and seeing a good amount of Wisconsin this season, I do think Penn State can go into Madison and come away with a win after the bye week. However, a loss would not be stunning to me.
But the floor is still 10-2 at this point. No matter what happen in the next couple of games against Wisconsin and Ohio State, I do not see how Penn State loses another game in the rest of the season. At 11-1, Penn State will be a playoff team. At 10-2, it gets a little crowded.
I do think Penn State is better than Wisconsin and should win in Madison. So I’m on board with 11-1.
Check out more of our midseason roundtable discussions:
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