Giger's do-over: Taking a mulligan on my record prediction

ALTOONA, Pa. -- I hate taking a mulligan. Not on the golf course, mind you. Give me all the extra shots I can get in that addictive, maddening sport.

But when it comes to sports predictions? No, I don't like do-overs.

So, it's with some frustration but also a healthy dose of realization that I'm here today -- 11 weeks before Penn State's season opener at West Virginia -- taking a mulligan on my record prediction for the Nittany Lions this year.

Here's why: This tweet below from my buddy Joe Smeltzer over at Nittany Sports Now, which I saw last month and made me do a double take, thinking, damn, I messed up.

Goodness. Look at all that nonsense above. Penn State's opponents this season are, outside of Ohio State, a collective bunch of mediocre to bad teams. Just seeing that, you should be thinking to yourself: That schedule has got 10 or 11 wins written all over it.

Not just a mere nine wins, which is what I predicted five months ago.

I wrote this piece on Jan. 14, making predictions for Penn State's season. There is a whole bunch of good stuff in that story, and I encourage you to go back and read it if you haven't already.

I stand by everything I wrote in that story -- including the doubts and concerns I have about this year's Penn State football team. There are, without a doubt, some major questions that will need to be answered if the Lions are going to be anywhere near as good as a whole bunch of people hope they'll be.

But the two parts of that story linked above that I can no longer believe in or stomach were, to be clear, the most important parts. It's these two predictions:

• Record: 9-3

• Playoff appearance: No

Taking a mulligan, my official stance now is that Penn State will finish 10-2 and, yes, will indeed make the College Football Playoff.

Sure, there are questions about the Lions. But man oh man, all the teams on their schedule -- again, save for the Buckeyes -- have many more serious questions. Back in January, I was considering 10-2 and 9-3 as possibilities, and right now, I would lean toward 11-1 being a stronger possibility than 9-3.

Because if Penn State goes 9-3 against that schedule, then something will have gone terribly wrong in multiple games that the team should have won.

I'll pick Ohio State to beat the Lions. I also think they'll stumble one more time and lose a game that they should win -- James Franklin has done that a lot during his tenure -- which leads me to 10-2.

What other game will they lose? Shoot, I don't know. At Wisconsin or at Minnesota could be it. I doubt it will be at USC, because I think the Trojans are going to have a very, very difficult time with the physical adjustments during their first year in the Big Ten.

Anyway, no need to get too carried away trying to explain myself on something that should be very self explanatory, based on that over/under win totals tweet up above.

When I made my picks back in January, I knew a lot of the opponents would be falling off some this year. But those predictions were before all the transfer portal stuff and whatnot, so admittedly, it's just too early to tell what teams will look like in January.

And who knows, maybe some of those teams will actually be a lot better come this fall. We'll see.

Regardless, whatever questions I might still have about Penn State, there's no question that this schedule sets up very nicely for the Lions to have a very successful year.

What are your predictions? Let me know in the comments about your season record and whether or not the Lions will make the playoff.