The Penn State Nittany Lions have been placed highly in a new CFB power ratings.
The Penn State Nittany Lions are one of the more interesting teams across the college football landscape as Week 4 gets set to start.
Penn State is currently 3-0 on the season, with wins over Temple, Buffalo, and Marshall. The Nittany Lions have opened up the Matt Campbell era off very well, giving thought to them possibly being a sleeper team for the College Football Playoff.
But the job is far from finished, and the Nittany Lions understand this. However, the way that the team has been playing so far is encouraging, giving more spotlight to this program through the first few weeks of the year.
College football analyst Tom Fornelli of CBS Sports ranked the top 12 teams in the country entering Week 4. Within this ranking, the Nittany Lions came in at No. 12, which is a little higher of a ranking than they are in the AP Poll (No. 13).
This is high praise for Penn State and shows the excellent job that Campbell has done so far with this program. But the Nittany Lions' road gets much tougher moving forward, starting this coming week when they welcome the Wisconsin Badgers to town.
After the game with Wisconsin, the Nittany Lions will be heading out on the road to face Northwestern. Following this game, Penn State gets both the USC Trojans and Michigan Wolverines in back-to-back games.
The Trojans will be coming to Beaver Stadium, giving the Nittany Lions a slight edge in the game. But USC still has one of the more explosive offensive attacks in the country, so Penn State will need to be on its A-game.
Penn State will be heading on the road against Michigan, in what could be the toughest game of the season. Playing in the Big House is never easy, no matter what version of the Wolverines is currently on the field, so the Nittany Lions will be tested here.
If the Nittany Lions can get through this stretch of games with one or fewer losses, they would be set up very well. Penn State then has games against Purdue, Washington, Minnesota, Rutgers, and Maryland.
While no games in the Big Ten are easy, Penn State's schedule does help them a little bit. This group could be looking at a potential berth in the playoff if they could finish the year with only one loss or fewer.
But for now, all the focus will be on the game against Wisconsin, as the team tries to keep the hot start going strong.
