DAVID JONES – NOT SO FAST – Patriot-News
The most controversial columnist on the Penn State football beat thinks Phil Steele has the Nittany Lions overrated at #5 in the country. He isn’t too high on his alma mater eihter:
Many are citing Ohio State at home on Nov. 7 as the key. Sorry, I can’t get past Iowa and at Illinois straight out of the box. This with the Lions still probably trying to piece together an offensive line missing three major players from last year and certainly starting at least two kids who’ve never seen the field in any extended quality time.
WIDE-OPEN BIG TEN
So who will take the conference if not PSU? I’m not at all sold on OSU and especially Terrelle Pryor. I have my doubts whether Pryor will ever approach the heights projected for him.
First off, I agree with him on Pryor and I bet a lot of people outside of Ohio do too. I do think that Iowa and Illinois have a pretty strong chance of being gut-check games for Penn State too. However, Illinois, a road game, has me more concerned than Iowa because I think the latter is circled on the schedule in the heads of the Nittany Lions. Obviously, we have to get through summer and the first three games (mmm, cupcakes), before getting even the slightest idea of what this team is going to be about in 2009.
Jones goes on to suggest that the Big Ten season is wide open, maybe as much so as 1995, and Illinois, Iowa or Michigan State could sneak in as champions. I don’t think that is too radical a notion, but we’ll see. Jones has not been the most successful at preseason predictions of late.
I think it is 58 days until kickoff. I have about a month until I open up my preseason magazines too.
