Anthony Donkoh injury update: James Franklin reveals encouraging update on Penn State OL

The Penn State Nittany Lions lost their starting right tackle Anthony Donkoh in the first half of the win over UCLA. There was some concern he’d be down for a while but, luckily, head coach James Franklin recently shared an encouraging update.

Franklin shared that they’ve been happy with how Donkoh has responded to treatment and the expectation is that he’ll be good to go for Penn State’s next game. While the exact nature of Donkoh’s injury wasn’t revealed, he appeared to be favoring his shoulder when he left the game and did not return despite wearing his shoulder pads on the sidelines.

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“Obviously, you guys know, we’ve been very, very pleased with Anthony,” James Franklin said. “And we anticipate having him on Saturday.”

James Franklin was asked about Anthony Donkoh’s status after reporters watched him going through drills in practice on Wednesday. That came in preparation for Penn State’s trip to USC for their first conference game on the West Coast.

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Anthony Donkoh came to Penn State as a three-star recruit in the Class of 2023, according to the On3 Industry Ranking. He was the 494th-ranked player overall in that cycle. Now a sophomore, he’s in his first season starting for the Nittany Lions.

Nolan Rucci, a transfer from Wisconsin, is another offensive lineman who James Franklin is excited about and if Anthony Donkoh is unable to go for one reason or another, he’d likely be asked to step up for Penn State.

“Rucci has been able to play and play well. And, allow us to continue to do what we want to do on offense,” Franklin said. “I think he’s gaining confidence and getting more comfortable. But, that depth is important. We’re going to have bumps and bruises throughout the year. But, we’ve been pleased with Donkoh, really, since the bowl game. And Rucci was a nice piece of the puzzle to bring in. And, he’ll continue to have a significant role for us moving forward.”

Penn State is traveling to Los Angeles on Thursday for their Saturday game against the USC Trojans. That game will kickoff at 3:30 p.m. EST.

James Franklin explains Penn State’s travel issues for USC game

For Penn State, physically traveling to the USC game is a challenge given both the distance and how relatively remote State College is from a major airport. That added challenges that James Franklin recently highlighted.

“So, that was a big part of our discussions with the Big Ten when this thing got started is not only are we one of the most northeast schools, but based on runway length, size of the plane, weight of the plane, fuel on the plane, we can’t get out of here unless we would stop for fuel. So, with that, we’ve got to fly out of Harrisburg…That’s a big part of it is, you’re talking about adding another two hours to your trip on top of the flight, and I think the flight is already five-and-a-half hours or whatever it may be. That’s pretty much a full day. So, that’s one of the big reasons for leaving Thursday,” Franklin said.

“Feel good about our plan. But that’s a big reason why and that’s something that I think we’re going to need to look at addressing moving forward because it does change things for us compared to a lot of other teams in our conference that either — even if they are northeast, they have an international airport and things like that within a short distance from campus. Kind of got the double whammy. It’s the distance as well as the airport.”