Penn State has 'great opportunity' to make statement in Big Ten this season

Ohio State and Michigan are the Big Ten teams being mentioned as contenders to win the league and reach the College Football Playoff heading into the 2023 college football season. On3’s JD PicKell believes Penn State should be added to that list.

PicKell appeared on the Paul Finebaum Show on Wednesday and said that the Nittany Lions should be getting more love.

“I think this is a great opportunity for them to make a statement this coming season. But all of your chips with Penn State being a team that beats an Ohio State or beats a Michigan, their probably in the Drew Allar basket,” Finebaum said. “And we haven’t seen Drew Allar play meaningful minutes yet in a college football game. We’ve seen him in mop-up duty. We’ve seen him come in momentarily during an injury for Sean Clifford. But I think we still have to wait and see exactly what Drew Allar is going to be before we can speak definitively about Penn State.”

Allar was ranked as a five-star recruit for the class of 2022, according to the On3 Industry rankings. He appeared in 10 games last season, passing for 344 yards and four touchdowns in limited playing time.

Still, as PicKell said, he has something to prove.

“When you look at this team, a lot of this pressure lies with Drew Allar. Drew Allar is so talented, he has the potential to unlock more talent with this roster,” PicKell said on The Hard Count. “It’s a thing where now they’re so balanced and have more explosivity available to them if Drew Allar is who we think he will be. Penn State’s in that tier where they’re saying ‘you talk about Michigan and Ohio State being those top two – talk about us, you better mention us.’ That’s the statement they want to make.”

There’s no doubt that Penn State has talent. Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen are back at running back after combining for more than 1,900 yards last year. On the defensive side of the ball, the Nittany Lions return Abdul Carter, who led Penn State with 6.5 sacks last season. If everything comes together, the Nittany Lions could be contenders to win the Big Ten and potentially reach the College Football Playoff.

“Their statement is, you better mention us. And when I say I mention us, when you talk about those teams in the Big Ten that are like the big boys, the Ohio States, the Michigans, those are teams that you better include us in the same breath with. And they have the roster to do it,” PicKell said. “It’s no longer a thing with Penn State where they’re trying to overcome the roster they don’t have next to those teams. You look at how they’ve recruited, you look at some of those cats they’ve got already on campus that made an impact for them as freshmen… those dudes can play now. There’s no wondering about what they will eventually be.”