James Franklin confirms RB Keyvone Lee missed class, practice

No. 16 Penn State was humbled by No. 4 Michigan over the weekend, dropping its first game of the season. Now there’s potential roster drama brewing with the whereabouts of running back Keyvone Lee at practice on Wednesday unknown.

Local media at Penn State’s practice Wednesday did not spot Lee present and asked coach James Franklin whether he was in class.

“Yeah, Keyvone was not out here. He was not in class,” Franklin said, declining to elaborate further. “That’s accurate. As you know, I’m not going to get into (it). He wasn’t in class and he wasn’t out here practicing.”

Lee logged just one carry against Michigan, the third time this season he’s seen one or fewer carries. He toted the rock just once in a win over Ohio and did not receive a carry in a win over Central Michigan.

For all intents and purposes he has fallen to No. 3 on the depth chart, behind the likes of star freshman Nicholas Singleton and freshman Kaytron Allen.

Singleton has recorded 69 carries for 482 yards and five touchdowns, while Allen has racked up 63 carries for 319 yarsd and four scores.

Lee has 25 carries for 94 yards, ranking fourth on the team in both categories. He has yet to hit paydirt this season.

Given the lack of usage it’ll be interesting to see how things unfold from here for the Penn State running back, who was formerly a four-star prospect and the No. 244 overall recruit in the nation in the 2020 recruiting class.

With or without Keyvone Lee, Penn State looking to bounce back

While it’s unclear whether Keyvone Lee will be with the team Saturday given his absence at practice in the middle of the week, Penn State will be looking to bounce back to keep their Big Ten East aspirations alive despite the loss to Michigan.

Franklin knows that Michigan might have provided the blueprint to beating the Nittany Lions, though, and he expects this week’s opponent, Minnesota, to use it.

“Yeah, I think there’s similarities. And I think we also know this is a copycat business, right,” Franklin said. “So people are going to watch the film and take some ideas. Minnesota wants to run the ball. They want to constrict kind of the life out of the game in terms of time and possession — all those types of things.

“So, we’re going to have to be ready to defend the run and the play-action passes that come off of it for them. And they got a really, really productive back that they do a great job within their system. So, that’ll be a challenge. There’s no doubt about it. We’re going to need to be ready. The corrections that we made on Sunday from the previous game. As well as getting prepared for what Minnesota is going to try to do. Obviously, it’s going to be a big storyline in this game.”

Penn State and Minnesota will kick off at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday with a broadcast on ABC.