If the heart of the team is its offensive line, the Penn State Nittany Lions have a bum ticker.

Even the most miniscule slip-ups by the big boys up front can magnify any problems an offense may have, and the season's first two games have shown that the line has more than a few flaws.

As a result, the running backs have no holes to run through, the quarterbacks have no time to pass and the Lions have had no chance of moving the ball.

The biggest problem is that the line has been decimated by injury. Eric Rickenbach and Joe Hartings never even made it out of the preseason, and Greg Ransom sustained a collarbone injury last week against Wisconsin that will keep him out of tomorrow's game and maybe more.

This has hurt the Lions in two ways. First and foremost, they are without the services of three guys who they were counting on to start. Secondly, the backlash has created a veritable turnstile. Throughout the last two years, Penn State's line has had more faces than Barbra Streisand.

Throw in graduation and transfers, and the Lions have lost nine — that's nearly two full units, for crying out loud — offensive linemen since the end of the 2000 season, leaving them with a young, talented, frighteningly inexperienced group in 2001.

Head coach Joe Paterno hasn't hesitated to shake up his lineup during the early part of the season, mixing the underclassmen in with the starters. More changes may be in hand tomorrow.

"There's been some shuffling," said starting tackle Matt Schmitt. "Coach mostly moves people around to get things organized. I think it's going to make us a stronger team."

Maybe so, but Penn State has another problem, one that goes beyond merely this season. Only recently have the Lions been bringing in the mammoth, 6-foot-forever, two-ton linemen that you see at other Big Ten schools.

Paterno's philosophy had long been to go with lighter, quicker, more athletic linemen, relying on technique and play-calling rather than brute size or strength.

This strategy worked for many years, even when Penn State joined the Big Ten, a conference known for its punishing giants up front.

But the college linemen of today are big AND athletic. Not only on offense, but on defense. And it seems that the Lions have found this out a bit too late. Penn State has only five 300-pounders on the offensive side of the ball, only two of whom (Gus Felder and Joe Iorio) are starters. It has showed during the first two games.

Penn State could have gotten the likes of Bryant McKinnie, the gargantuan 6-9, 330-pound Miami tackle that manhandled the Lions four weeks ago. But McKinnie, who played junior college ball in Scranton, headed south after Penn State decided not to take a chance on him.

So, instead of recruiting linemen, the Lions decided to try to make them. Tyler Lenda, the current starter at right guard, was a defensive end when he came to Penn State, then a tight end before making the switch to o-line last season.

Freshman Charles Rush, last year's Defensive Player of the Year in Pennsylvania, has also been moved across the line of scrimmage.

Make no mistake — a team needs a strong line if it wants to achieve any kind of success. Look back to Penn State's undefeated 1994 squad. Who were the MVP's of that unit — Kerry Collins, Ki-Jana Carter, Kyle Brady?

Nope. Try Jeff Hartings, Marco Rivera, Andre Johnson and Company — the line that sprung the aforementioned skill players for all of those yards and touchdowns.

The current bunch of Lions — Felder, Schmitt, Iorio, Lenda and Ransom fill-in Scott Davis — will most likely start against Iowa. How long they'll be in there is another story, with Paterno likely to work in the younger players until he finds a group that can get things going.

If Penn State is going to get back to the 1994 level, or even just to the level where the Lions can win a few games, it will need the men in the trenches to step up.

The ones that are left, anyway.