Penn State Football: Ranking 2020 opponents by toughness

Rutgers is probably the worst Power Five team in the country. Yes, even worse than Kansas. The Scarlet Knights are hoping that by re-hiring Greg Schiano, they recapture some of the magic that they had nearly 15 years ago, when they were putting out winning seasons and had NFL talent like Kenny Britt and Devin McCourty on the roster.

Rutgers has not had a winning season since 2014 and has not won a Big Ten game since 2017. Schiano is in for quite the rebuild.

Penn State has not lost to Rutgers since they joined the Big Ten in 2014 and don’t expect that to change anytime soon. With this game being the last of the season, Penn State will want to exit this game without any injuries as they could be playing in the Big Ten title game the following week. Expect the Nittany Lions to cruise in this one.

A week after a trip to play Virginia Tech, Penn State returns home to welcome San Jose State to Beaver Stadium. There should not be any drama in this game, but it is worth keeping an eye to see how the Nittany Lions respond if they have a big win in Blacksburg the week before or if they are coming off a loss.

San Jose State has not been to a bowl game since 2015 and they have not been very successful since their surprising 11-2 season in 2012.

San Jose State will be hoping that Arkansas transfer Nick Starkel can improve their offense, but their defense is among the worst in the country. That is not what you want when you are facing talented players like Journey Brown and Noah Cain. This should be a big and easy win for Penn State.