This sums up the state of the Big East: Third-year Syracuse coach Doug Marrone is one of the league’s elder statesmen.

He’s not the longest-tenured Big East coach (that would be 10-year Rutgers coach Greg Schiano), but Marrone has at least a year on every other Big East coach.

This season brings new coaches at each of last season’s tri-champs: Connecticut Paul Pasqualoni, Pittsburgh Todd Graham and West Virginia Dana Holgorsen. They join second-year coaches at Cincinnati, Louisville and USF.

With that kind of turnover, it is not shocking Big East teams struggled to find their footing last season. When West Virginia lost its bowl game to North Carolina State, the Big East found itself without a 10-win team for the first time since 1998.

If only the lackluster numbers ended there. The league’s BCS representative, Connecticut, lost 48-20 to Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl, then lost longtime coach Randy Edsall to Maryland. The league’s 60.9 non-conference winning percentage was its worst since 2005. And no Big East team finished the season ranked.

That’s the bad news.

The good news is the league should be improved this season thanks to experienced quarterbacks. Big East teams returned only two starting quarterbacks in 2010, and one of those (Rutgers’ Tom Savage) lost his job and transferred after the season. In 2011, only Connecticut and Louisville do not return their quarterbacks.

Perhaps this was a by-product of shoddy offenses, but the Big East featured some of the country’s best defenses, at least statistically. West Virginia, Syracuse and Pittsburgh finished in the top 10 nationally in total defense. Louisville and USF finished in the top 20. If offenses are going to catch up, the movement likely will be led by Pittsburgh and West Virginia, who hired coaches used to leading prolific offenses.

Here’s a look at the Big East in its final season as an eight-team conference before TCU joins the conference in 2012.

The PlayersBEST OFFENSIVE PLAYER: Connecticut T Mike Ryan. A major reason the Huskies were able to reach the Fiesta Bowl was the play of the offensive line, which was the best in the Big East. Connecticut led the league in rushing (thanks to since-departed TB Jordan Todman) and allowed the fewest sacks in the conference (15). Ryan is a left tackle with good size (6 feet 5/333 pounds), but he’ll be put to the test this season blocking for an unproven backfield.BEST DEFENSIVE PLAYER: Pittsburgh E Brandon Lindsey. The injury to Greg Romeus in the 2010 season-opener could have been debilitating to the Panthers’ defense, but Lindsey became one of the best defensive players in the league. He finished with 10 sacks last season and will be an intriguing piece in Todd Graham’s 3-4 defense. He is listed as an end, but Pitt also will use him as a pass-rushing linebacker. He has shown up on some NFL draft watch lists, but he still has a few things to prove, mainly whether he can be a force without fellow end Jabaal Sheard taking some of the attention. And can he put up big numbers against every opponent (half of his sacks came in two games, against Rutgers and New Hampshire)?

The 10 best gamesUSF at Notre Dame, Sept. 3LSU at West Virginia, Sept. 24Notre Dame at Pittsburgh, Sept. 24USF at Pittsburgh, Sept. 29West Virginia at Syracuse, Oct. 21Syracuse at Connecticut, Nov. 5Miami at USF, Nov. 19Pittsburgh at West Virginia, Nov. 25West Virginia at USF, Dec. 1Syracuse at Pittsburgh, Dec. 3

Projected finish1. West Virginia2. Pittsburgh3. USF4. Syracuse5. Louisville6. Rutgers7. Cincinnati8. Connecticut