Penn State mentioned among 'teams that can make the College Football Playoff'

Voters and supposed experts aren't sleeping on the 2022 Penn State Nittany Lions as much as they are brushing PSU off to the side as it pertains to preseason predictions. 

Penn State will head into the so-called "Week 0" of the college football campaign unranked in the preseason USA Today/American Football Coaches Association Coaches Poll and in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll. Some may think that's somewhat harsh considering the Nittany Lions were an unbeaten fourth-ranked team last fall until quarterback Sean Clifford went down with an injury during a loss at the Iowa Hawkeyes on Oct. 9. 

Clifford is back for a final run with Penn State and was recently named one of the nation's "25 most important players" for the upcoming College Football Playoff race. ESPN's Heather Dinich went one step further for a piece published Thursday morning when she mentioned Penn State among her "20 teams that can make the College Football Playoff" this season. 

"This team needs to be in the Big Ten East race, period," Dinich wrote of PSU potentially making the CFP. "The Nittany Lions recruit too well to finish the season 2-6. They have a veteran quarterback returning in Sean Clifford, but they have to get more offensive production, which comes with better offensive line play and a more dependable running game."

Dinich added that Penn State can't lose to both the Michigan Wolverines on Oct. 15 and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Oct. 29 and expect to make the playoff. 

"Last fall, Penn State was 1-4 in October, with its lone win against Indiana," she pointed out. 

Penn State begins the season at the Purdue Boilermakers next Thursday.