What did Penn State coach James Franklin say on lack of snaps for KJ Winston Jr., Andrew Rappleyea being out?
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State was without a key member of its tight ends room for all of Saturday’s win over Bowling Green. And, it did not have one of its top defenders for the better part of four quarters. However, anyone hoping for specifics on why redshirt freshman tight end Andrew Rappleyea, who was seen standing on crutches on the Lions sideline in the fourth quarter, or safety KJ Winston Jr., who came out after the first play of the second quarter and never returned despite standing on the sideline in full uniform sans his helmet, won’t be getting answers for at least a few more days.
Asked first about Rappleyea, Franklin said his setback was to recent to know what the long-term outlook is.
“On Rap, I don’t know, to be honest with you,” Franklin said. “This was very, very recent. I don’t have the information to give to you. As you guys know, I won’t talk about injuries with you guys until I’ve talked to the players and their families and make sure everybody’s OK with the information. But I also, again, I don’t know. It’s very recent.”
With Rappleyea unavailable, starting tight end Tyler Warren received more snaps and took full advantage of them. He set a Penn State single-game program record for tight ends with eight catches for 146 yards. Khalil Dinkins returned to action, too, after missing the West Virginia game. He recorded one catch for seven yards. Freshman Luke Reynolds did not record any stats but started the contest and looks more and more like a candidate to burn his redshirt this fall.
More: Penn State-Bowling Green takeaways: Tyler Warren’s big day, struggles on defense, more
As for Winston Jr., there was no obvious issue besides his lack of a helmet throughout the second quarter and second half. Penn State, partially due to him being out and partially due to a wise Bowling Green substitution plan, had to play more defense and less of its 4-2-5 look than it prefers to.
“I can’t get into KJ Winston and why he wasn’t in there,” Franklin said. “As you guys know, I don’t talk about those things, but it obviously increased the amount of reps for Jaylen Reed and increased the amount of reps for Zakee Wheatley. It also kind of changed our ability to be able to get into the package where J. Reed is playing the ‘Lion’ position. So, you know, we need to be in base a little bit more. It’s hard to get in [an advantagous third down defense] if they don’t substitute on third down, which is what a lot of people are doing. They won’t substitute on third down so that we can’t get our prowler on the field, which is our rush package, which is a smart plan. So those are some things that we’re going to have to work on, specifically during the bye week. Those will be important.”
Linebacker Tony Rojas also left the game in the first half with what appeared to be an injury. But, he returned after halftime and had a key fourth quarter interception. Penn State was also without linebacker Ta’Mere Robinson on Saturday after he suffered an injury in Week 1.
