This Penn State season could be about nothing more than finding a quarterback for 2011.

You didn't think that would be settled before the games start, did you?

Joe Paterno says he has no idea who'll start behind center when the Nittany Lions open their 124th football season Saturday with Youngstown State (noon, Beaver Stadium, Big Ten Network).

"We can't make up our mind," JoePa said Tuesday, during the season's first weekly media teleconference.

"We were going to try to make it up last week, and then I said, 'No, let's make sure we know what we're doing.' So we'll probably make up our mind in the next day or two, we'll start, but we'll probably play a couple of kids."

The season's first three-deep chart was announced Monday. It listed the quarterbacks as follows: Matt McGloin or Kevin Newsome or Robert Bolden.

McGloin is a redshirt sophomore from Scranton. Newsome, a sophomore, backed up Daryll Clark last year. Bolden is a true freshman who did not enroll last spring.

A true freshman who did enroll in the spring, Paul Jones, was listed on the three-deep behind the above threesome, but with no "or" next to his name. Paterno said Jones got off to a slow start academically and acknowledged that he is tentatively scheduled to be redshirted.

It probably says something about Bolden that he's even in the discussion after just a couple weeks of practice at the college level. But that's about as definitive as it got Tuesday.

McGloin, Newsome, Bolden. In any order.

"I know you guys want me to be a little bit more definitive … but I've got to be honest with you," Paterno said.

"We've got some kids that we really like and we think are going to be good and there's more than one.

"But at this stage, I couldn't tell you which one's going to come to the front as the guy that's going to lead the team or whether we have one who can handle the kind of situations that a quarterback is going to have to handle as the season goes on."

Other than that, the half-hour session went the way it usually does:

Sportswriters trying to extract more information than Paterno was willing or able to give, and Paterno and his 83-year-old ears struggling to comprehend them.

The three-deep is a fungible document, it was learned.

On it, fourth-year man Chaz Powell was listed as a starting cornerback, having been moved from offense to defense in the spring.

But someone asked about Powell and Paterno's lengthy answer included the news — which Joe didn't realize was news — that Powell had been moved back to offense.

A probable starting wide receiver and kick returner, Curtis Drake, broke his leg three weeks ago. A backup running back and kick returner, Stephfon Green, is banged up. The presumptive returning starter at tight end, Andrew Szczerba, has a nagging back problem.

The offense is thus missing playmakers, which is why Powell was moved back.

"We needed somebody over there to do some of the things those guys could do, not only be running backs, good receivers, guys that could maybe make something happen," Paterno said.

"And right now Chaz is back learning, because we've changed the offense some. I think pretty quick he's going to be a guy that can make some kind of a contribution to our football team, on the offensive side of the football.

"If something happened to one or two of those corners on defense, he might be back on defense."

Other roster news, as the Lions slowly take shape:

• Wide receiver Brett Brackett and defensive tackle Ollie Ogbu, both fifth-year seniors, have been named team captains in voting by their teammates, Paterno announced.

• Drake's job as slot receiver/kickoff returner has been won by Devon Smith, a tiny (5-7, 157) but lightning-fast sophomore who spent part of last year in Paterno's doghouse.

• The most experienced returnees —seniors Chris Colasanti and Bani Gbadyu and junior Nate Stupar — are first-team linebackers. The all-sophomore second string, Mike Mauti, Mike Yancich and Gerald Hodges, figures to play a lot.

• Winners of the critical battles for offensive line jobs, at least for the moment: C Doug Klopacz, RG Stefen Wisniewski (those two are no-brainers), LG DeOn'tae Pannell, RT Lou Eliades and LT Quinn Barham (those three are not).

• In lieu of the ailing Szczerba, the starter at tight end will be Garry Gilliam, a massive (6-6, 265) redshirt freshman from Milton Hershey.

Youngstown State, of Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) has played Penn State once, in 2006. Penn State won, 37-3. Saturday's game, like that one, is one of those take-a-beating-for-a-price deals.

Las Vegas has declined to set a betting line.

At the press conference, not a single Youngstown State question was asked.

mgross@lnpnews.com