In Penn State's 34-27 win over Bowling Green in week two, Nittany Lions star safety Kevin (KJ) Winston Jr left the game with an undisclosed injury. The potential first round pick in next year's NFL Draft was seen on the sidelines after he left the game in the first half but was without his helmet.
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Now with the Nittany Lions bye week in the past and the program preparing for MAC opponent Kent State, Penn State head coach James Franklin was asked about Winston's availability going forward.
"I don't really have any new information to share with you guys at this stage," he said. "I probably will post practice when I see you guys later in the week," he added.
With Winston's potential availability for this weekend's game in question, the Nittany Lions coaching staff knows that continuing to develop pieces at the position is going to be important.
"Obviously Dae Dae (Dejuan) Lane is the next guy that we've been trying to get reps with," Franklin said. "That'll be important, but we're going to have to develop a few more guys, especially, you know, hopefully we'll see, timing wise, how this whole thing will play out. But definitely, for the short term, we're going to have to develop some more guys. So Dae Dae is going to be really important this week and obviously, moving forward as well."
The Nittany Lions of course have a pair of safeties in Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley that they are confident in to be the leaders of the position group. "Those two guys played a ton of football for us, and we'll need to continue."
Notably, the Nittany Lions this fall will be using three safeties on the field at the same time extensively thanks to the new "LION" position as part of Tom Allen's 4-2-5 defensive scheme.
Through the Nittany Lions first two games, Reed and Wheatley have played more snaps than any other Penn State defenders, both topping 100+ snaps. Winston Jr despite missing most of the Nittany Lions game last weekend is 10th in total snaps this season as well.
While the severity of Winston's injury is unknown at this time, it seems likely that Penn State would opt to be conservative with the junior safety.
The Nittany Lions are nearly 50-point favorites over Kent State this weekend, however, starting August 28, the Nittany Lions will begin Big Ten play starting with a top-25 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini team at Beaver Stadium.
A run-heavy offense, Winston's availability for the Nittany Lions' Big Ten opener would be much more important.
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