Penn State junior safety KJ Winston will be out long term, dealing a significant blow to the Nittany Lions defense.
Penn State head coach James Franklin provided the update regarding the Nittany Lions top defender on Wednesday evening following the program's latest practice. Winston suffered the injury during the first quarter of the program's 34-27 win over Bowling Green in week two.
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The loss is a significant one to say the least for the Nittany Lions. Winston was arguably Penn State's top overall player on the program's roster coming into the 2024 season and is in the conversation to be a first round pick in next spring's NFL Draft.
In 2023, Winston earned All-Big Ten honorable mention from both the coaches and media after recording 60 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, two fumble recoveries, one interception and five pass breakups.
The Maryland native got off to a strong start this season, recording 12 tackles and a forced fumble in the program's season opening 34-12 win over West Virginia in week one.
The Nittany Lions still have two veteran safeties in their room in Jayleen Reed and Zakee Wheatley but in a defense that will look to play a trio of safeties consistently in Tom Allen's 4-2-5 defense, true freshman Dejuan Lane will now be thrown into the fire.
"Obviously Dae Dae (Dejuan) Lane is the next guy that we've been trying to get reps with," Franklin said on Monday during his weekly press conference about Lane. "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."
Lane was one of two true freshmen to earn the green light from the Nittany Lions coaching staff coming into the season joining offensive lineman Cooper Cousins. Tight end Luke Reynolds also earned the nod recently following quality play in the first two weeks of the season combined with the long-term loss of tight end Andrew Rapplyea.
The Nittany Lions will look to get ready Lane for Big Ten action this weekend when they take on the Kent State Flashes. The Nittany Lions are near 50-point favorites in the matchup. Kickoff is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
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