“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” That famous quote by English poet Alexander Pope is something that a Penn State football fan will never have to worry about.

That’s because year in and year out, Nittany Lions’ faithful expect to be in the national championship picture. And in recent years, Penn State has been close. But this season, even this writer will admit that he’s 100 percent convinced that the blue and white really do have a good shot.

That has also been the case with the national media with many of the most respected college football pundits picking PSU to be in the mix for the national title. The return of impact players Drew Allar, Nick Singleton, Kaytron Allen, Dani Dennis-Sutton and Zane Durant have helped put the Nittany Lions at No. 2 in the preseason AP poll.

Hype is all well and good, but sooner or later the play on the field needs to back it up. And that time is today at 3:30 p.m. ET (CBS) as Penn State opens the season in Beaver Stadium against the Nevada Wolf Pack from the Mountain West Conference. Season openers have always been kind to the Nittany Lions, as they have won 20 of their last 23 season opening games. PSU is 121-13-1 all-time in its home openers as well.

And for those of you out there that think all of those games are against “cupcake” opponents, Penn State has faced West Virginia (2023, 2024), Purdue (2022), Wisconsin (2021) and Indiana (2020) to open the season over the past five years, with three of those games being on the road.

In my opinion, the real reason why the national media is so high on Penn State this season is because of what it’s returning in the trenches on the offensive side of the ball. The big men up front are what win you football games.

Drew Shelton (LT), Vega Ioane (LG), Nick Dawkins (C), Anthony Donkoh (RG) and Nolan Rucci (RT) form the best offensive line that head coach James Franklin has had in his 12 years at PSU. Pair that with veteran running backs Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen and what you have is one of best rushing attacks in all of college football.

Singleton (2,912 yards) and Allen (2,877 yards) are the second duo in Penn State history to each have 2,000 career rushing yards, with the first combo being Lydell Mitchell and Franco Harris. Singleton has the most rushing touchdowns (32) and all-purpose yards among returning FBS players this season.

The Wolf Pack defense was one of the worst against the run in the country last season, giving up 192.8 rushing yards per game. Nevada’s defense should be better in 2025, but it will have its work cut out for it in the interior in the run game against Ioane and Donkoh.

“I think we’ve got a number of guys that we’re expecting big things from when you talk about Shelton, Vega, Dawkins, Donkoh, Rucci, Cooper Cousins and TJ Shanahan. I would say right now all are seven guys that we view as starters,” said Franklin. “I think this group has a chance to be one of the better groups in the country. I think one of the better groups that Penn State has had.

“With the two running backs that we have and the quarterback, it puts those guys in a really good position to have successful years. It starts up front. It’s a group we take a lot of pride in. We’ve worked really hard to get to this point and we expect them to play at a really high level.”

It’s yet to be seen, but the Nittany Lions did everything they could to fix their wide receiver issues that they had from a season ago, bringing in three players from the transfer portal in Kyron Hudson (USC, 462 yards, 3 TDs), Devonte Ross (Troy, 1,043 yards, 11 TDs) and Trebor Pena (Syracuse, 941 yards, 9 TDs). All three are veterans players and were productive a season ago, and it creates even more depth at the position with Liam Clifford returning and young players Tyseer Denmark and Koby Howard coming into the fold. Drew Allar should have some legit targets at wide receiver this season.

On the defensive side of the ball, bringing back Dennis-Sutton and Durant was huge for a PSU defensive front that lost top five NFL draft pick Abdul Carter. Keep an eye on defensive end Zuriah Fisher. Fisher has been injured for most of his career and he’s finally healthy, and has looked good in camp.

Penn State paid a ton of money to bring in defensive coordinator Jim Knowles over from Ohio State, so the expectation will be as it always is, that the defense will be expected to play at a high level. The Nittany Lions finished seventh in the country in total defense and eighth in the country in scoring defense last season.

The Nevada offense is a work in progress. The Wolf Pack will start once-heralded recruit Chubba Purdy. Purdy started his career at Florida State, but injuries have plagued his career. Nevada must replace a lot of production at wide receiver and they lost their best offensive lineman to Oregon. The Wolf Pack ranked 105th in the country last season in scoring offense.

Las Vegas has Penn State as a 43.5-point favorite.

Another thing I really like about this Penn State team is its back end and linebackers. Tony Rojas at linebacker is one of the most dynamic athletes at the position in the country, and in the secondary the Nittany Lions have proven playmakers in cornerback AJ Harris and safety Zakee Wheatley. If the PSU pass rush can get after the quarterback there is going to be a lot of turnovers created in the secondary this season.

My pick is Penn State 56, Nevada 6.