MMQB - They Are Who We Thought They Were

The Penn State Nittany Lions are undefeated no more, having lost to the Minnesota Golden Gophers by the score of 31-26.

I won’t get into the specifics of the game, because what I really want to talk about is where this team is, and where we all thought it would be.

Turns out, this team is exactly what we all expected.

Back in August, we had our annual record prediction post. And you’d be amazed how many people predicted that Penn State would be 8-1 on the morning of November 11th.

All told, 10 different writers said Penn State would have at least two losses this season. At this point, I’d like to think that 10-2 is now the floor.

Shoot, even looking through the comment section of that article, the average number of wins predicted by the commenters on this site (excluding the 15-0 or GTFOers) was 9.6.

In short, this team is who we thought they were. They’re a good team, and certainly could have proven all of us wrong by going 11-1, but, y’all, that is a TOUGH thing to do in college football. Even harder in a Power 5 conference, and harder still in one of the two toughest divisions in the sport.

So yes, it’s disappointing the WAY they got to 8-1, but they are still very much on track for the kind of season we all hoped for - and expected.

Bring on Indiana! Time to protect the Olde Wooden Boot!