James Franklin provides injury update on Amin Vanover, Chop Robinson

Penn State has a couple injured players it would like to get back for its contest against Indiana this week, but time will tell if coach James Franklin has them available.

Both defensive end Amin Vanover and defensive end Chop Robinson were injured in the team’s loss to Ohio State and their status is up in the air going forward.

“Amin it’s too early to tell,” Franklin said. “I think Amin could be a little bit like JB (Nelson), he’ll be a game-time decision and then even then depending on how much work he got during the week will still be a decision that needs to be made.

“And with Chop we hope to get him back sooner rather than later, but I don’t have any of that information right now.”

Vanover was injured during the Ohio State game, walking off the turf with his arm around a member of the program’s medical staff after the game.

Robinson, on the other hand, suffered what appeared to be a scarier injury. He was carted to the locker room after being helped off the field and into the team’s injury tent in the second quarter.

Some of the availability of the two will also depend on how comfortable Franklin is with them in the system. The more knowledge he feels the player has and the more football they have under their belts, the easier it is to return on a shorter timeframe.

That could certainly help get Robinson on the field a little quicker.

“I think a little bit too is how veteran of a player is it in terms of how much practice time they miss and how much football they’ve played here,” James Franklin said. “That plays a part into it as well. But we have played a ton of guys at defensive end. There’s also a young guy that we’ve been excited about who’s coming on, that’s Jameial Lyons, so that plays a part in it as well.”

Penn State and Indiana will meet on Saturday with a kickoff at noon ET on CBS.