James Franklin provides injury updates on players who missed spring practice

The Penn State Nittany Lions had a handful of players that were absent during this year’s spring practices, like tight ends Tyler Warren and Theo Johnson. But not to worry, Nittany Lion fans, according to head coach James Franklin those players are now ready, as he explained recently.

“They’re all good to go. We had a decent number of surgeries right after the season ended. So that’s why we did it then,” said Franklin. “Obviously, they’d missed spring ball, but now they’re all back and ready to go. And that’s a lot of really good players and a ton of experience. You think about how critical the tight ends were for us last year. So to not have those two guys for spring ball, in some ways, sometimes that’s a blessing in disguise. Because now it forces the other guys to get a ton of reps.”

Warren and Johnson are expected to play a much bigger role in Penn State’s offense in 2023. Last season Johnson hauled in 20 catches for 328 yards and four touchdowns. That was good enough for second among all Penn State tight ends. Not too far behind him was Warren, who had 10 catches for 123 yards and three touchdowns. The Nittany Lion tight ends have proven themselves to be just as valuable pass catchers as the wide receivers on the roster. And Franklin believes his receivers should take notice of that.

“The other thing I’ve been trying to talk to the wideouts about as well is a lot of times, the wideouts think they’re just competing with the wideouts, right? Well, they’re also competing with the second tight end. You know, what gives us the best chance to win? Who should be on the field? So, that’s part of it too. But all those guys are back, fully doing workouts, and should be ready for camp.

“I would also say I think our depth is better than it’s ever been since we’ve been here. So what I’m hoping is that we could play a lot of guys on offense, defense, and special teams to be as healthy in the fourth quarter and healthy at the end of the season as possible.”

With the added depth Penn State has on their roster this season, it means that they can throw wave after wave of talented individuals at their opponents, wearing them down over the course of the game. And that is huge, especially when playing some of the top teams in the nation. And if Penn State can keep its depth with the majority of their players remaining healthy this season, the Nittany Lions have a strong chance of taking over the Big Ten conference and reaching the College Football Playoff.