Greg McElroy adds 3rd team as a contender for Big Ten championship in 2023
Greg McElroy is looking ahead to the 2023 Big Ten season, and sees an expanded contender list for the Big Ten Championship, beyond Michigan and Ohio State.
The ESPN analyst sees Penn State as a challenge to Michigan and Ohio State, and is aware of the backlash that statement might bring. But he said he’s called the Nittany Lions’ games, and has seen the progress by the defense under Manny Diaz. He also understands the Michigan game was bad.
“That was the anomaly performance,” he said. “Most of the time, they played pretty well on that side of the football, including a 3-quarter stretch against Ohio State when they played really well. And their offense didn’t do them a lot of favors in that game, I might add.”
McElroy added that Penn State returns 6 players on offense and 7 on defense.
“The reason why I’m so optimistic about Penn State, so many of the guys that are coming back were so dang young this year,” he said, and pointed to Nick Singleton and Kaytron Allen, along with KeAndre Lambert-Smith, Kalen King and Abdul Carter. “This team has a young nucleus of talent that is only going to continue to grow and get better and one of the biggest leaps you make as a player is from Year 1 to Year 2.”
His comments about Penn State begin at about 14:15 below: