The Lions' Pride

Not trying to attack you, but I have a huge problem when people say this.
A post like this implies that the PSU offense was on the same page previously and that a new system is a short-term negative because now the offense won't be on the same page and as gelled as they previously were.
Which is total BS because the previous offensive system from top to bottom was a total cluster£&)$ that did nothing but shoot this team in the foot. The previous offense was never, EVER "on the same page" for the past 2 years at least.
The new staff could give the offense a playbook in Swahili and they would be more in sync than they ever were in the last couple years.

It is true that the PSU offense over the last few years was terrible and had a lot of issues. However, for the most part, the defense was solid. Both the offense and defense are going to learn a new, more complicated system. In addition, PSU is not deep in a few key spots and will have to count on kids that have very little experience. There is very good reason to be excited about the new staff and what they will do with the team and future teams. However, I do not think it is all that crazy for people to think it might take a little while for the team gel or be considered a very good team.

Phil Steele is good at what he does, which is complie stats and make predictions based off of the analysis of those stats. PSU being so low this year shouldn't be surprising since we have so few returning starters this year (something that Phil puts a lot of weight into). However, that stat is misleading for us because of injuries and the way we rotate guys in. Technically, we only have 4 starters returning on defense (Hill, Hodges, Carson and Mauti), but everyone except for SOA has had significant playing time in the past. That is something that Phil Steele doesn't take into consideration, because you really can't put a stat on that type of situation.

Since we have a new coaching staff, I really don't think that you can take any kind of prediction too seriously. Nobody knows what kind of team we will have.

My bad? Haha. Thanks for correcting my opinion for me guys, I almost forgot what it was!

Insulting other posters = check.

So, pete, what is YOUR take on Steele? Is he a "hack"?

Im still working on the first part where "Fair to PSU" = pro-PSU

Phil Steele's predictions don't match mine. He's a hack, a corporate puppet!!!

LOUD NOISES!

While Steele might not be a hack, he is hardly infallible with his predictions. Here is his top 40 from last year:

Phil's Top 40
1. Alabama
2. Oklahoma
3. Boise State
4. Oregon
5. Virginia Tech
6. Notre Dame
7. LSU
8. Texas A&M
9. Georgia
10. Florida St.
11. TCU
12. Nebraska
13. Arkansas
14. South Carolina
15. Ohio State
16. Stanford
17. USC
18. Texas
19. Oklahoma State
20. Southern Mississippi
21. Houston
22. Arizona State
23. Wisconsin
24. Penn State
25. South Florida
26. North Carolina
27. Pittsburgh
28. Michigan State
29. BYU
30. Air Force
31. Miami
32. Florida
33. West Virginia
34. Ohio University
35. Tulsa
36. Mississippi State
37. Clemson
38. Missouri
39. Illinois
40. North Carolina State

As you can see, he was off on a lot of these predictions(although, ironically, he got PSU almost exactly right). He had ND, FSU, and TAMU in his top 10. OSU was ranked 15th. He only had Ok State at 19. ASU clocked in at 22 in his poll. Several other schools in his top 40 that did not finish anywhere near where he predicted in the preseason.