I wonder what Athlon ranked Penn St. at last year pre-season? Listening to Deace this morning and he has a point. Any other team that won 11 games last year, a BCS bowl and returns it starting QB is ALWAYS ranked in the top ten the following year. Let alone we return as many on D as we do. Penn St. had huge holes at the OL last year, and I venture to bet there were pre-season top 5.
That all said, I don't think it is much of a big deal that we are #12, rather than say #8. I'm just saying most other teams returning what Iowa does, combined with what they did last year = a top ten ranking for sure, possibly even top 5, and even #1 status if you are Penn St., Michigan, Ohio St., ND, Texas, Florida, etc....