James Franklin addresses absence of Kevin Winston Jr.

The Penn State Nittany Lions survived a scare from the Bowling Green Falcons on Saturday, improving to 2-0 after their 34-27 win. Shortly after the win, Nittany Lions head coach James Franklin addressed the absence of Kevin Winston Jr., their safety who was named the Bednarik Award’s National Defensive Player of the Week in their season-opening game. Against West Virginia, he tallied a career-high 12 tackles and a forced fumble.

Winston played in the first quarter against Bowling Green on Saturday, and briefly in the second quarter, before other players got snaps, including Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley.

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“Again, I can’t get into KJ Winston and why he wasn’t in there. As you guys know, I don’t really talk about those things. But I mean, obviously, it increased the amount of reps for Jay Reed and increased the amount of reps for Zakee [Wheatley]. And also kind of changed our ability to be able to get into the package where Jay Reed is playing the Lion position. So, we needed to be in base a little bit more,” Franklin explained in his postgame press conference.

Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley both made the most of their opportunities, with Reed finishing with 10 total tackles and Wheatley finishing with six total tackles.

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“It’s hard to get in Prowler if they don’t substitute on third down which is what a lot of people are doing. They won’t substitute on third downs, so that we can’t get our Prowler on the field. Which is our rush package. Which is a smart plan. Right? So, those are some things we’re gonna have to work on specifically for the bye week,” Franklin noted.

Penn State got great performances out of their running backs, as has been the custom for them over the years. Running back Nicholas Singleton finished with 13 carries for 119 rushing yards and one touchdown. Kaytron Allen finished with 14 carries for 101 rushing yards. As a receiver, Singleton also hauled in a 14-yard touchdown catch.

PSU receiver Tyler Warren hauled in eight catches for 146 yards, with his longest catch of the day being 30-yards. Quarterback Drew Allar finished completing 13 of 20 passes for 204 yards, while tossing in two touchdowns with one interception.