Three-fifths of the offensive line has to be reconstructed and an entire secondary and receiving corps must be retooled.
So, Joe Paterno may not agree with how good writers and coaches are predicting his team to be.
"I'll be honest with you, we're lousy," Paterno said Aug. 13 at Penn State's media day. "I have nothing to be excited about right now as a team. I'm serious about that. We've got too many things we've got to get accomplished. We've got a lot of work ahead of us to be a good football team."
Then, Paterno paused.
"I'm excited to be alive," he quipped. "That's about it."
Penn State will open its Big Ten title defense tied for ninth with Oklahoma State in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll.
It's the team's highest preseason ranking since it was ranked No. 3 in 1999, and comes despite voters uncertainty of how Penn State will fill the void left by departures of key contributors.
Forty-two of the 60 AP writers who vote in the poll slotted Penn State in the top 10.
Eric Hansen, who covers Notre Dame football for the South Bend Tribune, wrote the Nittany Lions in at No. 24, the lowest of any voter.
Hansen, 48, has been a sports writer for 26 years and has had a vote on and off for 15 years.
Most years, he said, there's always one team's fanbase incensed when his poll comes out. This year, he knew it'd be Penn State's.
"The preseason is basically an educated guess on how you think the teams are gonna do this year," he said. "They have more questions than most teams. Some teams you pick on a gut feeling. Penn State has some of the fewest returning starters of any of those top 25 teams."
Only 10 starters return, but many of them are considered among the conference's best.
Quarterback Daryll Clark, running back Evan Royster, center Stefen Wisniewski, defensive tackle Jared Odrick and linebackers Sean Lee and Navorro Bowman have all earned All-Big Ten recognition.
That type of returning talent was heavily considered when Dave Matter slotted the Lions as No. 4 in his poll. Matter was one of two voters to rank the Lions that high, along with Glenn Guilbeau of Gannett Louisiana News Service.
Matter writes for the Columbia Daily Tribune and has covered the Missouri Tigers full time since 2000.
"The return of Clark-Royster in the backfield might give Paterno the best one-two punch in the league as far as offensive skill-players," Matter wrote in an e-mail. "The defense should be strong again, especially up the middle. Also, getting to host Iowa and Ohio State sets up a pretty favorable schedule."
And Matter is not concerned with inexperienced players having to develop in-game confidence early on.
"I weigh established returning players more heavily," he wrote. "Losing those receivers could be a shock to the Spread HD system, but it's such a luxury in college football to return a veteran quarterback who has big-game experience. Having a grizzled quarterback like Clark can help a young O-line grow up quickly."
Paterno didn't seem as impressed with the talent returning, saying you need to play with 22 guys to be successful.
And as far as knowing how his squad stacks up with the rest of the country, Paterno, as usual, said he didn't have a clue.
"What's it mean? Does it guarantee us anything?" he said about preseason polls. "I don't pay any attention to that stuff. It's good for the fans. Maybe it will sell some tickets."
