CHICAGO -- Joe Paterno has a new hip, a new three-year contract extension and a new goal.

The 82-year-old Penn State coaching icon will try to lead the Nittany Lions to back-to-back Big Ten championships for the first time since they joined the conference 16 years ago.

Penn State won the title outright in 1994 and shared it with Ohio State in 2005 and '08.

The Buckeyes were chosen as the media's preseason favorite to win the Big Ten title yesterday during the conference's annual media days. Penn State was picked second and Michigan State, third.

"I hope we're one of the heavyweights in the conference, but I don't know," Paterno said. "I do know Ohio State is one."

Paterno, whose team finished 11-2 last year and lost to Southern California in the Rose Bowl, said Penn State's success will hinge on how quickly his team is able to plug some gaping holes.

All four starters are gone from the secondary, along with three of the most productive wide receivers in school history and three starting offensive linemen.

"We have good football players," Paterno said. "I'm not telling you we don't have any at all and it's just going to take a miracle and you're going to want a coach and all that stuff. We have good football players and they're fun to be around."

Paterno, the winningest coach in Division I history with 383 victories, had a tough year physically last season. He injured himself trying an onside kick three days before the season opener against Coastal Carolina in late August.

The pain eventually got so bad, he was forced to spend the last eight games working from the coaches' booth.

He also had to walk with a cane and monitor practice from a golf cart.

Paterno, entering his 44th season as coach and 60th year on the staff, had hip replacement surgery the day after the regular season finale in November. In mid-December, he was rewarded with a contract extension through the 2011 season.

"There's going to come a time when I'm going to have to look in that mirror and say, 'Hey, you're not doing a job and you have more of an obligation to the university than just going out there and going through the motions,' " Paterno said. "I don't think I've reached that yet.

"But that day will come, and then I'll decide to get out of it. But right now, I'm enjoying it. I think I can do a good job."

Paterno said his hip is fine and he plans to be back on the sideline for the Sept. 5 non-conference opener against Akron at Beaver Stadium.

"Well, I have no reservations about [my hip]," he said. "The only thing I have found out is that I get a little tired. I used to be able to walk. I came back from the beach a couple weeks, 10 days ago, and actually I used to walk four, five, six miles every morning.

"I went about two [miles], and then the leg would get a little tired, [my] back would get a little tired. So I'm working up to where I can do what I used to do. But I don't have any pain."

NOTES -- Paterno admitted he should have played first-team All-Big Ten quarterback Daryll Clark more when he was backing up starter Anthony Morelli from Penn Hills in 2007. "[Quarterbacks coach] Jay Paterno wanted to play Clark more, and I thought it would discourage the kid that we were using. I thought the kid we were using had the potential to be a good quarterback, and I blew that one," Paterno said. ... Paterno said redshirt junior defensive tackle Abe Koroma and senior cornerback A.J. Wallace are dealing with off-the-field issues and may not be with the team when it opens preseason practice Aug. 10. "I doubt if Koroma will be [back]," Paterno said. "He's got some personal problems." As for Wallace, Paterno said: "There is some question. He cut some classes." ... Tight end Kevin Haplea from North Hunterdon High School in Annandale, N.J., yesterday became the 14th player to make a verbal commitment to Penn State for 2010.