Joe, you stole my words. (about PSU)
Actually, my response to your post was to be: "So is pre-season HYPE".
I can't understand all the infatuation with Penn State. I expect them to be GOOD...and us to have a real dogfight at their place, given the shellacking we laid on them at the 'House. But I don't expect them to be a top-5 (or nearly so) team.
Their offense has only one real lightning bolt (Barkley). McSorley is, from all I've seen of him (and yes, that includes more than the U-M game), an AVERAGE (or maybe slightly above) QB. And their offensive line had numerous problems last year.
Not to mention a defense that gave up 49 points to us, 31 to Wiscy and 52 to USC...
And I'll go a step further and add I'd be willing to bet OSU (ranked No.2 pre-season) doesn't reach the playoffs, and to bet my NEXT PAYSTUB they don't win it all. Yeah, it's easy and naïve to say something like "last I saw of them, Clemson was skunking them 31-0"...Buckeye fans can argue, as they have, that that was after all ONE GAME. But Mr. wonderful, J.T., has seen his passing efficiency steadily go downhill. If not for those two interceptions, WE might well have shut them out, too.