Will Penn State Football return to College Football Playoff hunt in 2021?

Matt Lombardo – Senior Editor

Season prediction: 10-2

For a program coming off its most disappointing season in decades, James Franklin’s Nittany Lions are riding some very real momentum into September.

Franklin seemingly hit a home run in hiring Mike Yurcich to jumpstart an offense that struggled mightily to find any sort of footing during last season’s COVID-19 impacted season, and has dominated the recruiting trail while assembling what is currently the nation’s No. 1 ranked recruiting class in the 2022 cycle.

That momentum could carry into the most difficult opener Penn State Football has faced, with a trip to Madison to take on Wisconsin.

If the Nittany Lions can get past the Badgers, that’s the kind of victory that can springboard a program through a brutal opening stretch that includes a White Out against perennial powerhouse, Auburn.

For as much positivity as there is around Penn State right now, expect that to build through the fall, but overcoming Ohio State in the Horseshoe and Iowa in a prime time tilt at Kinnick might be too high a mountain to overcome in 2021, but this season should lay the groundwork for Franklin to launch the Lions into that “elite” tier in coming years.

Bowl projection: Sugar Bowl