Preseason Rankings Countdown. 17 days to the start of the 2026 Season. At #17 – Penn State

The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here

WE ARE… on to the #17 team in the countdown, Penn State (high = 8, low = 23). And before you ask, yes, Massey does indeed have Penn State as the #8 team in the country heading into the season. Unless you were sleeping under a rock, you know that Penn State entered last season as the preseason #2 team in the AP poll, considered a favorite to win the B1G title a year after reaching the conference title game and going toe to toe with #1 Oregon, then winning a pair of CFP games before blowing a late lead to Notre Dame in the semifinals and finishing the season ranked #5. After going all in on retaining the roster to make a championship run and getting their much ballyhooed night game white out against defending B1G champions Oregon that they got to overtime after staging a 4th quarter 14 point comeback, things fell apart so fast you almost got whiplash. After trading TDs in the first OT, Dante Moore threw a TD pass on Oregon’s first possession of OT but the Ducks failed on the 2 point PAT, putting the game completely in Penn State’s hands. But Drew Allar immediately threw an INT that sealed the game, silencing not only 111,014 Penn State fans (shout out to this guy) but, as it turns out, the Nittany Lions’ championship dreams, because it sent them into a tailspin of losing at UCLA and at home to Northwestern (a game that also ended Drew Allar’s season), and that was enough for Penn State to pull the plug on the James Franklin era that had seen them win a B1G title in 2016, with 6 double digit winning seasons in his 11 full seasons to date and that had gone 34-8 from 2022-24 on the way to a 7-6 season. After an “interesting” coaching search that, at a minimum, told the world that BYU had Crumbl money, the Nits settled on Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell, who checks notes has never led his team to a conference championship and has 1 double digit winning season in his 15 year head coaching career. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton…

Roster Outlook

It’s impossible to discuss this roster without starting with the fact that Matt Campbell seemingly brought half of Ames with him to State College. While an exaggeration, he did bring 23 players from Iowa State with him. Which would feel better if last year’s Iowa State team hadn’t lost 4 games, including at Colorado. Nevertheless, Iowa State’s starting QB Rocco Becht (2,584 yards, 16 TDs, 9 INTs), RB Carson Hansen (952 yards rushing, 6 TDs) and top 2 WRs (Brett Eskildsen and Chase Sowell, who combined for 1,026 yards receiving and 7 TDs) are all in line to start for the Nittany Lions in 2026. That haul was a large part of what resulted in Penn State landing the #1 portal class in the B1G and #4 class in the country, even though they only rank 67th in returning production (and 78th on offense). The late hire probably cost Penn State in terms of high school recruiting, where they landed 16th in the conference and 65th in the nation (even behind Iowa State), with James Franklin pulling several recruits with him to Virginia Tech. On the defensive side of the ball, perhaps the most encouraging thing is the hiring of alumnus D’Anton Lynn to be the new DC, who has become a highly sought after coordinator (though, it should be pointed out, he’s jumped up from 2 years at UCLA to 1 at USC to now Penn State).

Schedule and outlook

9/5 MARSHALL

9/12 at Temple

9/19 BUFFALO

9/26 WISCONSIN

10/2 at Northwestern

10/10 USC

10/17 at Michigan

10/24 BYE

10/31 PURDUE

11/7 at Washington

11/14 MINNESOTA

11/21 RUTGERS

11/28 at Maryland

For years, Penn State had the “misfortune” of being in the B1G East that guaranteed them annual games against Ohio State and Michigan, schools James Franklin had a combined 4-17 record against that more or less kept them from reaching their national aspirations. While 2025 brought a reprieve from Michigan, playing Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon wasn’t exactly a vacation. The Matt Campbell era will never know such pain, and it starts by avoiding all 3 of those schools such that a road trip to Michigan is, on paper, the most daunting task. Though a couple of quirky road games are in the early part of the season (playing “at” Temple with the Linc more than half-filled with Nittany Lions fans and being the opener at Northwestern’s Ryan Field), the season will start in earnest when USC comes to State College for the first time in 32 years on October 10. In fact, that meaty middle to the schedule (USC, at Michigan, Purdue and at Washington – one of those things is not like the other) will go a very long way in telling whether Penn State has a great season or just a decent one. For sure they should improve on last season’s 7-6 season, but if things break right, it’s not impossible to see them back in Indianapolis in December with the team that finished 7th in the Big XII last year. Think that won’t be a talking point on ESPN if that happens?