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Penn State football among 'biggest mystery' teams in 2024

Penn State football made a New Years' Six bowl game but 247 Sports rates them as one of the biggest mystery teams going into 2024.

By Chris Peterson

Dec 30, 2023; Atlanta, GA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin talks to a
Dec 30, 2023; Atlanta, GA, USA; Penn State Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin talks to a / Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
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FanDuel released its Big Ten championship odds for the 2024 season and Penn State football has the fourth-highest odds of any team in the new 18-team Big Ten to win the league.

Penn State football won 10 games last season and they have been super consistent under James Franklin, although some might say that the Nittany Lions are consistently the third-best team in the Big Ten East, which doesn't exist anymore.

If the 12-team playoff existed last season, Penn State football would have been a playoff team. Hell, they would have been a playoff team in 2022 too. But will that be enough for Nittany Lions fans in 2024? Can Penn State football replicate its success over the past two seasons?

The defense has some question marks after losing elite talents to the NFL draft such as Chop Robinson and Kalen King. But Penn State football has one of the best running back tandems in college football with Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen.

Penn State football has question marks

However, the biggest question marks are at quarterback and head coach. James Franklin has won a lot of games but he's lost plenty of big games too. Drew Allar, a former five-star QB, put up impressive numbers last season, but was awful against Ohio State and Michigan when it really mattered.

So when Josh Pate of 247 Sports said Penn State football is one of the biggest mysteries of the upcoming season, it made perfect sense.

"Penn State is a mystery team. On one hand, they've been the model of stability. They are right below Ohio State and Michigan in the pecking order but not too far below anyone else. Well, there are questions. They're trying to replace both coordinators. They hired Tom Allen at defensive coordinator. They went and got Kansas' offensive coordinator, Andy Kotelnicki. Drew Allar has to learn a new way of doing things. Everybody's hopeful that their offense can improve. It's not going to be that difficult because they were bad last year. The stability of the program is not to be questioned. That's what spring football is for. There are a lot of positions and holes that have to be filled."

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