After a routine 7-6 season, Penn State football is ranked No. 35 in the 2015 season’s first Amway Coaches Poll. 64 head coaches submitted Top 25 lists, with their No. 1 earning 25 points, their No. 25 earning one point, and everything corresponding in between.

Penn State missed the Top 25 by ten spots, and its 20 points fall 146 short of No. 25 Tennessee, but some national recognition from other head coaches is about all the program can ask for at this point. We discussed in our podcast that Penn State has a very realistic chance to finish between 8-4 and 10-2 thanks to a weak schedule — so if head coaches are sleeping on the Nittany Lions now, they almost certainly won’t be later in the season.

James Franklin’s team is ranked behind five other Big Ten schools, two from the Big Ten East. Ohio State is the No. 1 overall with 62 first-place votes and two second-place votes, then Michigan State is No. 6. Wisconsin is the only other Big Ten team in the Top 25 at No. 18, then Nebraska, Minnesota, and Penn State come in at Nos. 33, 34, and 35. Illinois scored seven points at No. 39, and Maryland and Michigan tied for No. 51 with one point each.

If these 64 head coaches’ votes have credibility, and we like to think they do, Penn State is poised for an impressive season. We’re just about five weeks away from kickoff against Temple at Lincoln Financial Field, and it can’t come soon enough.