Dani Dennis-Sutton injury update: James Franklin shares when Penn State will decide DE's status

The Penn State Nittany Lions suffered some injuries to important players in their win over the Wisconsin Badgers, which head coach James Franklin now needs to manage. That includes the injury suffered by edge rusher Dani Dennis-Sutton.

Dennis-Sutton was forced to miss all but one play of the second half against Wisconsin with an injury that forced him to limp off the field. Now, in an update, Franklin shared that he’s going to be a game-time decision for next week’s game against Ohio State, though if he’s healthy enough to go Franklin is confident in him.

“Dani will have the ability to play in this game,” James Franklin said. “He’s played a ton of football. He’s super mature, he’s very intelligent, he’s thoughtful. Hard working. He’s been in the training room the last two days. Every time I’ve gone down there, he’s down there.”

Part of Penn State’s excellent defensive line, Dennis-Sutton is an excellent pass rusher who, across from Abdul Carter, makes it almost impossible to block the Nittany Lions. For the season, he has 16 tackles, four tackles for a loss, and 2.0 sacks.

Another major injury for Penn State was starting quarterback Drew Allar. For the time being, both he and Dani Dennis-Sutton are considered game-time decisions for Saturday.

“So, same thing [as Drew Allar]. We’ll go right up the game time to see kind of where we’re at with things. If he’s able to go, he’ll go,” Franklin said. “But if not, we have, we have a ton of confidence in those other guys as well.”

James Franklin turned to Amin Vanover and Smith Vilbert to make up much of the playing time against Wisconsin once Dani Dennis-Sutton went down. On top of them, freshman Max Granville could become an option if needed for the Nittany Lions.

“I think you guys saw played Max as well. We’ll be prepared to play Max this week,” Franklin said. “He’s still under the threshold of a redshirting, which we’d like to try to do if we can, but if it comes down to winning, we’re going to do what we got to do to win the game and Max is on board with that as well.”

For Penn State, the game this Saturday against Ohio State is arguably the biggest of the season. A win would likely propel the Nittany Lions to the Big Ten Championship Game and the College Football Playoff. It would also be the first win over Ohio State since 2016, with the Buckeyes winning seven straight in this series.

“So, too early to tell at this point, but those are veteran guys that have played enough football and intelligent guys that we feel will be able to go in and get the job done,” Franklin concluded.