2012 Preview: A Walking Dead Look At Penn State’s Season

Mark Emmert is determined to keep this door locked for 4 years.

Never before has predicting Penn State’s football season been such a daunting task.  In the last decade under Joe Paterno, it was simple.  Find the teams ranked ahead of us and predict a loss.  Chalk up the teams ranked below us as a win.  If a team was in Penn State’s general ranking vicinity named Purdue, Michigan State, or Illinois, call it a victory.  If their name was Iowa, Wisconsin, or Michigan, call it a loss.

There were other surefire tells just by looking over the roster. Is there a defensive end who can negate the vanilla defense’s lack of blitzing and create turnovers on his own?  If you have a Maybin, Hali, or Haynes, chances are it’ll be a 10 win season.  Is the offensive line rebuilding (again)? If so, you will max out at 8-9 wins.

What do you do when that blueprint is blown up by roster defections and a coaching overhaul?  You look at the football program for what the NCAA has made it over the next four years: a walker.