Alonzo Ford injury update: Is the Penn State defensive tackle dealing with a short- or long-term issue?
Penn State defensive tackle Alonzo Ford Jr., has a long-term injury, head coach James Franklin confirmed on Monday. The second-year Nittany Lion was hurt in the first half of Saturday’s game at Minnesota. He eventually returned to the sideline in street clothes. It’s unclear what he hurt, but it looked like a lower-body injury. Franklin did not give a specific update on the issue Monday but did confirm that he will miss a significant amount of time.
It’s a tough blow for the Nittany Lions and the player. Ford Jr., carved out a big role in the Lions’ defensive tackle rotation after an injury kept him off the field for all of the 2023 season after he transferred in from Old Dominion. He has 16 tackles on the season. With him out for much of last weekend’s game, Coziah Izzard’s role expanded significantly. And, it will continue to do so moving forward, as besides Ford Jr., being out, fellow rotation defensive tackle Hakeem Beamon left the team earlier this month.
“We overcame a lot of adversity on the road and found a way to get a big time, Big Ten win, which is tough to do,” Franklin said. “You look across college football, you know that’s that’s hard to do. I thought our guys did a really good job of maximizing moments and opportunities.
“When I talked about adversity that we faced at Minnesota, there was a lot of reasons for that, right? So Alonzo is long-term as well.”
It was the second long-term injury Franklin announced on Monday. The other Penn State player dealing with a significant injury issue is right tackle Anthony Donkoh.
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Ford Jr., was hitting his stride for Penn State
Ford Jr., has one season left. He is set to use it, in all likelihood, especially now that he is hurt again. He had a terrific perspective on his setback a year ago and will need to use it again as he recovers from this injury to try and get back on the field for Penn State.
“I feel like the redshirt year definitely gave me a different perspective on football, really,” Ford said recently. “Coming into Old Dominion, my first season in 2020 got canceled. In 2021, I’m starting as a young guy and I just never really experienced the redshirt life. I came in here and had to learn how to really compete and play at the level that they play here in the Big Ten. It was good for me to adjust to everything.
“It gave me time to develop in the weight room and things like that. When the injury happened, I was sad, obviously, but I just look at it as a positive. To be able to get back to work and hopefully come back this year and do what I needed to do.”
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