8/31/2023 football Edit

Penn State vs. West Virginia - Unofficial Injury report

Justin Morganstein • Happy Valley Insider

Staff Writer

Please note that this availability report is unofficial.

Penn State Football is set to begin a new season once again as it takes the field at Beaver Stadium on Saturday to start the 2023 campaign.

Expectations are as high as ever under James Franklin heading into the year as the Nittany Lions will look to take care of a West Virginia team that is coming off a sub-.500 season.

While the Big Ten has a newly mandated player availability rule that will force teams to report player availability at least two hours prior to kickoff, here is who is likely to be available or not come Saturday prior to the release of that list.

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PENN STATE AVAILABILITY REPORT....

The Nittany Lions appeared to be coming out of camp with no major injuries to its first-team offense or defense.

But on Wednesday evening, Landon Tengwall, Penn State's probable starter at left guard, announced his retirement from football due to injury. An unexpected blow for the program.

Tengwall was highly recruited out of Annapolis, Maryland, and had continued to develop nicely throughout his short two-season career.

Filling the void will be former JUCO transfer JB Nelson. On the other side of the ball, the defensive line did take a hit to its depth when it was announced earlier this month that defensive end Smith Vilbert would be forced to miss the entire upcoming season due to injury.

Another depth piece on the defensive line that will be sidelined for the entirety of the 2023 season is Old Dominion transfer Alonzo Ford, also with an undisclosed injury.

Despite Vilbert and Ford’s absence on the D-Line, the Penn State front has plenty of depth with a combination of youth and experience at the position, so it should be able to fill the void with others playing key roles.

WEST VIRGINIA PLAYER AVAILABILITY REPORT....

Like Penn State, the Mountaineers are coming into their season opener with the vast majority of its key contributors healthy as well.

This week, West Virginia head coach Neal Brown met with the media and said that he had “a couple of guys that are question marks” but that he anticipates all of the starters being ready to go come Saturday.

One injury that will be monitored by many close to the Mountaineer football program is to freshman linebacker Josiah Trotter, son of former NFL player Jeramiah Trotter.

The highly recruited linebacker suffered a knee injury in spring camp and is working to hopefully get back onto the field at some point this season.

Other injuries include Davis Mallinger, a safety turned receiver as well as defensive Brayden Dudley who are both recovering from offseason surgery.

Both are likely to return at some point this season but should be out in the opener against the Nittany Lions.