Bodog Beat

At 35/1 odds to win the national title, the Penn State Nittany Lions are a good bet. (AP Images)

The Penn State Nittany Lions were oh-so-close to playing for the BCS national title last year, just a last-second Iowa field goal away from their shot at Florida or Oklahoma.

Joe Paterno's team lost a lot from the 2008 Big Ten champs, including six starters on offense (all three starting receivers) and seven on defense. The Nittany Lions do bring back quarterback Daryll Clark, who threw for 2,592 yards last year (third-best in PSU history) with 19 touchdowns and six interceptions in being named Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year. He also rushed for 10 TDs to set a school record with 29 total touchdowns in a season. Clark will be in the Heisman mix this year. Also back on offense is Evan Royster, who rushed for 1,236 yards last season, averaging 6.5 yards per carry.

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So the offense should be OK. But I would argue that Penn State's success or failure will be the result of two linebackers – this is, after all, Linebacker U. Those two linebackers would be Sean Lee and Navorro Bowman.

Lee, a fifth-year senior, sat out last season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee during an April 2008 practice. He was stellar in 2007, recording 138 tackles, which was second in the Big Ten and fifth all-time in a season at Penn State – that's saying something. Lee was held out of contact drills this spring but is moving well and should be 100 percent by the fall. The All-America candidate is moving from outside linebacker to middle linebacker and is the leader of this unit.

Yet Lee might not be the most talented linebacker on the team. That could be Bowman, who didn't even start until the Lions' fourth game last year. But the junior-to-be managed to finish with team highs in tackles (106) and tackles for loss (16.5) last season. He added an interception, two forced fumbles, a fumble recovery and six pass deflections. Against Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl, as PSU's defense was shredded, Bowman had five tackles for loss, including a sack.

The PSU defense was eighth in the country last year, but the secondary and defensive lines pretty much need to be rebuilt. Thus Lee and Bowman will be the heart and soul of the unit and will need to carry the load early in the season.

The good news for PSU futures bettors – the Lions are 35/1 odds to win the BCS national title at Bodog – is that Penn State's early schedule is a joke. They leave Happy Valley once in the first seven games, and that’s at inconsistent Illinois. If the Nittany Lions can then win at Michigan on Oct. 24, and PSU just snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Wolverines last year, they should be unbeaten when Ohio State visits Beaver Stadium on Nov. 7.

That Buckeyes game could well be for the Big Ten title and a first BCS title game for Paterno.

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