Two years removed from its national championship in 2004, the Penn State men's gymnastics team will hardly resemble that stellar squad when it takes to the floor for the upcoming season.

The team will hardly even resemble the squad from last year that took fourth at NCAAs. The Nittany Lions will instead be marked with young but proven talent and already have injuries to deal with.

"We've got a lot of injuries right now, and we're very young," Penn State men's gymnastics coach Randy Jepson said. "Couple that with the injuries we have and we're going to have a slow start."

While the team is plagued with injuries at this point and is very thin right now, Jepson was quick to point out that all is not lost this season, the first after the graduation of 11-time All-American and two time defending NCAA all-around champion Luis Vargas.

"We have one outstanding freshman who's really going to help the team a lot. Casey Sandy, he's going to be a huge plus," Jepson said.

In a season without veteran standouts from previous seasons, much of how and what Sandy does will go a long way in determining how this year's team fares.

With Sandy, a national team member from Canada, Jepson isn't worrying.

"The kid's really good," Jepson said. "He's pretty solid, has competed in world championships and really doesn't have a weak event."

Also joining this squad will be standout gymnast from the 2004 national championship team, Kevin Tan. Only this time, he'll be lending his expertise as an assistant coach.

"He's a great competitor. He was just in the world championships with the United States," Jepson said. "He's still competing, so he'll jump in with all of that competitive experience."

Jepson added that with such a young team, having someone with Tan's skill and experience "will be a huge plus."

Also gaining praise from Jepson was this year's pommel horse team as well.

As for what it will take for this year's squad to be successful, Jepson said, "We won't have that much consistency early on, but we have really good pommel horse, and I think that will help us a lot."

Jepson also added that more than anything the team just has to stay healthy and that he'll know more about his team after an intra-squad competition later this week.

"We're going to have a slow start to the season," Jepson said. "It's going to take us a while to develop this year. We'll just have to be patient, bring guys along health-wise and try to make a run in the end."