Penn State football injury updates, key Nittany Lions to watch vs. Bowling Green

one key player returned to practice for Penn State and then just like that another one was absent you are locked on nit Lions your daily podcast on the Penn State nit Lions part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day let's talk about the latest takeaways from Penn State football practice these position groups for the NY Lions need to step up in that game against Bowling Green and just go over some final thoughts for that Penn State versus Bowling Green matchup this Saturday this is lock on nney lions I'm your host Zach Seiko and thanks so much for making us your first listen and watch every single day we are free and available wherever you get your podcasts including YouTube and Today's Show is brought to you by Game Time download the game time app create an account and use promo code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase again I'm looking forward to seeing your score predictions so let me know down in the the comments your final score prediction and expectations for Penn State versus Bowling Green of course I'd greatly appreciate it if you left a like on this episode we'll start with the practice observation so Penn State opened up football practice once again to the media had postgame interviews and reactions from the players and of course James Franklin and the notable takeaways from that practice were the fact that a key player returned for Penn State and then another key player was missing and that's a big deal to me because of the depth at this position group let's talk about the player that actually returned khil dinkin tight end khil dinkin is back he was presumed to be the second tight end on the depth chart I'm overly confident in Andrew Raper and and Luke Reynolds as far as what they were able to do leading into the season but I always kind of thought Raper would eventually transcend and move up to that number two spot but C denkin being the veteran we didn't get to see a whole lot from Le and Reynolds in that game against West Virginia but just having the more the marrier in the sense it was good to see that khil dinkin was able to return to practice it doesn't sound like there are intentional limitations on him it kind of depends on matchup right this is Bowling Green so you don't want to overwork him in a return after injury and James Franklin talked about that Franklin had said hey we understand that he's he's missed some time he's going to have to get back to game level speed and everything like that so don't anticipate that dkin plays a lot against Bowling Green maybe the first half or so and Again Luke Reynolds and Raper I think have a lot to prove he mentioned Joey schlafer as well remember schloffer was a top 10 tight end uh in his own right in the in the nation for that class of 2023 just like Rapa so there is plenty of talent in that position group they don't have to expect spend dkin too much going into the game against Bowling Green and of course more importantly you also have that by we following it up you you really don't want to have dinkin you don't want to force dinkin to have a setback in this case so Penn State I I don't think uh will do the wrong thing here they're going to make sure that he works his way back into the lineup and this is a good game to do that in going into the bye and then Ken State now the player that was missing Tamir Robinson the line backer second-year red shirt freshman I I had high hopes for Tamir Robinson as well and for those who may or may not remember and that West Virginia game actually got into a big Collision on kickoff to end the first half it was after Penn State scored in 22 seconds and Tamir Robinson was going for a big hit and it ended up being on on the bad side of that collision and he exited the game and it did look serious I was like oh man Robinson's shaking up here I I wonder how you know I wonder how things are going to go from here and it's not looking the best at least in the case of two days before a football game or three days I should say we went on Wednesday three days before a game and and Robinson's missing from practice or isn't and clearly is limited he's not there that that might be a Telltale sign of what's going on now again that's just one practice window so we'll see if Robinson is actually available on Saturday but just based on him being absent from practice on Wednesday being and and him taking that kind of hit against West Virginia I would say that it doesn't look good for him to play on Saturday if it is a a serious type of injury there's there's no reason kind of the same thing you don't want to you don't want to set dkin back you certainly don't want to set back Robinson as well because that leads to a bigger Point here so the overall takeaway of that is that the linebacker group it the the depth is just not good the depth is not good kind of like the wide receivers Penn State is in a situation where you only have four or five trustable players at this point to go into game action we know that's Tony Roos we know that's Dom Duca we know that's kobby King and that's why Penn State's running a lot of 425 with three safeties in the back end of the defense and if one of those guys is missing okay so I named the the three starters if you will right it it's Kobe King is your main stay at linebacker and then Tony roas and Don Duca are going to rotate in in that 425 but then after that it's just Tyler Ellen and it's just Tamir Robinson I don't I don't need to talk about Kon keys and J Lions any more Lions being a defensive end so with the current group of linebackers you don't have anybody else that's reliable to this point Penn State moved down darar Nelson from that safety spot to accommodate the depth at line linebacker but he weighs under 220 lb so he has to add the weight or he's just going to get pushed out of the front seven it's not going to be a fair match up when he has to take on a block from a pulling guard or the center that climbs to the next level that's just not fair and it's going to look bad for Nelson and then you have a bunch of talented freshmen that just haven't played any football yet at the Collegiate level Anthony specka High Praise for him from fellow teammates and then K Jackson I like what I've seen from K Jackson in limited stints at open practice availability but that's that's it that is it for Penn State at linebackers those five and that was kind of what I was worried about whether it was a Kobe king or a Tony roas or a Dom Duca and then that second group that second pair of linebackers Tyler Ellen and Tamir Robinson Penn State could not afford a serious injury it's Bowling Green you have a bye and then Kent State follows it up so if Robinson needs to rehab and heal okay you have about a 3 we window and even to an extent again Illinois is not really going to challenge you that much and I I can't believe I'm saying that but that's the gap between Penn State and Illinois and it is a home game same thing with UCLA I don't think UCLA is going to be that competitive this year and we know that that's basically the word around the country so for Penn State this they they have an opportunity to make sure that everybody is as healthy as possible if they do deal with some bumps and bruises but in this case the group that is being affected that could not not be affected really linebacker was the group that out of all the injuries that can happen to this team it can't happen to the linebacker room and that's unfortunately where it is at this point and hopefully Robinson can get back on the football field as soon as possible maybe he was just missing from Wednesday's practice window but the hit did not look good in the West Virginia game he was absent from practice I got to imagine I don't anticipate him playing against Bowling Green and he was one of the players that I spotlighted I said that he was a a player that I would like to see have a really good performance against Bowling Green and I don't know that we're going to get the chance to see that now overall these position groups need to step up against Bowling Green linebacker is one of them I'll tell you about the other two on the other side of this break and today's episode is brought to you by LinkedIn jobs when you're hiring for your small business you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role and that's why you have to check out LinkedIn jobs LinkedIn jobs has the tools to help you find the right Professionals for your team faster and for free LinkedIn isn't just a job board LinkedIn helps you hire professionals that you can't find anywhere else even those who aren't actively searching for a new job but they might be open to the perfect role in a given month over 70% of those LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites so if you're not looking on LinkedIn you're looking in the wrong place on LinkedIn 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate with within 24 hours so hire professionals 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season ago that this show and and other and other Penn State Outlets definitely gave some criticism and fans F gave criticism to Tyler Ellen too warranted unwarranted right uh Ellen did not receive a lot of High Praise a season ago so this is an opportunity for Ellen we'll see if Robinson's out there I don't have confidence in it I don't think he'll be available on Saturday against Bowling Green just kind of again logically speaking here based on practice availability and then the West Virginia game but besides the point this is now an opportunity for the true freshman K Jackson Anthony specka I'll even throw darari Nelson into this conversation as well we'll see what the nutrition dieting plan has for him now going from that safety spot where he was under 220 lb you would like him to be at least 230 ideally 240 darari Nelson only the pen State coaching staff is going to best understand his nutrition to see okay how is he going to be able to hand handle putting on the weight for that linebacker spot but I just want to see the skill set as well being a safety you already are going to have a natural instinct for playing closer to the Box zachi Wheatley is your traditional free safety but tari Nelson being that strong safety that acts as the hybrid of being in coverage but has that you have to be able to stop the run if you are going to be a strong safety type so darari Nelson moves to linebacker I want to see that skill set honed in for Nelson and then speca and Jackson They depend again depending on availability of the linebackers you might have to end up burning one or both of their red shirts and right now Penn State James Franklin have not made any indications that the anybody else with the the green light yellow light red light only Cooper cousins and dejan Lane the true freshman safety are are currently green lit they are going to they have the plan right now the blueprint in place to burn their individual red shirts down the road you just might have to and hopefully Anthony specka or Andor Ki Jackson are up to the challenge and are ready to go but this is a game that I want to see them have good performances so if they end up entering the game in the third or the fourth quarter I am definitely keeping an eye on speca and Jackson if and when they enter the game and of course Nelson as well but the true freshman who have been with the intention of playing linebacker here I want to see what they are capable of uh just two games into the 2024 season especially when you were not all injuries are equal in this case Kobe King Tony Roos and Dom Duca you don't want to lose any of them wooden desk knock on wood I don't like speaking that into existence but depth is a concern I asked James for Franklin about the linebackers on Wednesday at his press conference he acknowledged that depth at the linebacker spot is a concern so one of those first five that I named Robinson being out if he does have an injury that is going to keep him out of football games for an extended period of time that does not bode well because Penn State already doesn't have ideal depth at that spot now the other two position groups I want to start with the wide receivers and then I'll go to my last position group for Penn State why receivers good news for Penn State is that Kaden Saunders is still practicing and doesn't look like he has any limitations he was missing practice briefly in the pre-season and then he was there we the week leading up to West Virginia and ultimately played but was not factored into the passing game this isn't necessarily this conversation isn't just about Kaden Saunders although he is a wide receiver so he is a part of it but it's not just about his availability the same standard does carry over from linebacker to wide receiver you have about five players that you can trust right now Trey Wallace is your clear-cut number one he showed that we've been talking about it all off seon and then after that Amari Evans who I say is The X Factor to taking this offense from being good serviceable to Great Elite because of that speed that nobody else has in the offense okay Nicholas Singleton but Nicholas Singleton isn't running streaks in the slot maybe he will we'll see but in in terms of the wide receivers he is definitely the only one that can do that type of stuff or at least be consistently effective at it he has After Burner speed that not a lot of players on this team have period he's easily one of the three fastest players on the team that's Amari Evans Julian Fleming and why with all of you is because Julian Fleming and Liam Clifford did not catch a pass now in the scheme of things that doesn't matter because Penn State won Penn State won 34 to2 convincingly against West virgia you didn't need them to but that still doesn't inspire a lot of confidence okay because you didn't need them to doesn't mean that they shouldn't or that they can't right so in this game against Bowling Green wide receivers why I put them slightly above this group in terms of overall the significance of their overall group performance wide receiver is important here because Bowling Green actually has a pretty decent secondary they are out to defend the pass to limit it as best as possible they run a 335 for no for some that don't know that is three defensive linemen three linebackers and five defensive backs so kind of like Penn State running this 425 defense I mean Bowling Green really put puts its assets to the linebackers and the defensive backs you have eight that are away from the line of scrimmage most of the time most of the time you can do things with that hybrid linebacker defensive end shift them down or have him drop back into coverage but Bowling Green def defense is designed to stop the pass to try to limit it as best as possible and frankly there's some NFL talent in the back end of that defense I highlight Ola doen he was really good a season ago first team preseason all ma conference again I get it it's the MAC Conference you don't have to remind me but ol doen I think has an NFL future and honestly any of those other five defensive back any of those other four defensive backs the two safeties and the three defensive backs overall I I think have NFL Futures if they play their cards right and that's my point this is a really good test for the wide receivers for Julian Fleming Liam Clifford for Trey Wallace to continue and build that momentum carry that over from West Virginia Amari Evans as well had the big catch right 55 yards and then if Kaden Saunders is 100% right I want to see all five of them be involved in the game plan if they're available if they're healthy I also understand if Penn State like khil denkins like we presume for Tamir Robinson if you don't see a lot of Caden Saunders that's not necessarily a concern at this this point I think they're protecting him because they need him for a 12 plus game schedule I understand that so don't be surprised if Saunders happens to be in the same situation as denkins where he's just limited again he returned punts he caught punts against West Virginia he he doesn't need to show a whole lot against Bowling Green but it is important to get this wide receiver group involved against a secondary that can pose a challenge being relative to a MAC Conference Team the last group and I brought this up in my Penn State versus Bowling Green overall preview where I talked about the Falcons a lot is the fact that the offensive line did great in pass protection against a West Virginia defensive line pass rush that really isn't all that good but the Run game I know the kind of game that Nicholas Singleton had but outside of that I wasn't overly impressed and the analytics back it up too they back up the fact that Nick Dawkins s Wormley and Drew Shelton were not good in run blocking banga Yuan Cooper cousins Anthony Dono Nolan Ruchi were o okay at best and I and I think that's being generous the group as a whole was definitely below average against a West Virginia front seven that I don't know I don't know how good they are yet I need to see them play some more football games but I hope that they were a little more challenging than meets the eye but run blocking was just not good now we need to see if that's chemistry related is that a talent thing is that a coaching thing run blocking is going to be key here to help that Penn State Defense to sustain drives and it showed other than Nicholas Singleton breaking off not one but two big runs one of them scored a touchdown KRON Allen and cam Wallace combined for 44 yards and had 19 carries between the two of them I've said that's unacceptable I'll say it again especially for KRON Allen going into his third season as a co-starter KRON Allen should not be getting 20 yards on the ground on 10 carries so great that Nicholas Singleton had the day that he did but that's why it's important to see the offensive line in a game against Mac level competition group five outside of the power four this should be an incredible day for both Singleton and Allen and I'd even include cam wall and Bo prula in this conversation those are going to be your four leading rushers and well and and Drew Aller to an extent right since he has that dual thread ability now that we've talked about a lot but I want to see the ground game Penn State should have 50 60 carries in this game and the offensive line should make easy work of Bowling Green front six it's not a front seven it's a 335 so that's what I mean this defense is designed to stop the pass but uh it's pretty susceptible to giving up some some big run plays that is going to be on the offensive line we'll see how they'll perform let's finish up the show with this just some final thoughts about game day Bowling Green go over my spread prediction and my total predictions that's all coming up next here unlocked on nitty Lions today's episode is brought to you by game time you get to download the game time app 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cost just $6 this is over on game time right now for Penn State versus Bowling Green if you want last minute tickets for this game game take the guess workk out of buying tickets with Game Time download the game time app create an account and use promo code locked on college for $20 off your first purchase terms apply again use that code locked on college for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guaranteed in case anyone missed the Bowling Green versus Penn State preview episode that I did I encourage everybody to go check it out if you haven't listened to it or watched it already but I'll go over my prediction again I think Penn State wins 42 to nothing against Bowling Green obviously there's no doubt in my mind that Penn State wins this game they are built to beat Bowling Green but they're built to beat them convincingly and for the defense to pitch a shut out so this game is the home home opener season home opener for 2024 bowling Green's offense just doesn't inspire a lot of electricity right there's not they're not an electrifying offense they're pretty similar to West Virginia they rely on the ground game ball control Conor baslac used to play at Indiana and his head coach was Tom Allen I I talked about how valuable that is different coaching style now right Tom Allen's not the same coach that he was two three years ago Connor baslac is not the same quarterback that he was two three years ago but there is an element of an advantage here when Allen used to coach that specific player so he knows his strengths and weaknesses one of the people that knows them better than anybody else maybe even better than baslac himself point being being is that Penn State should have a really good day against a MC conference's team an offense that I think is pretty easy to limit here they rely on the ground game you take away the ground game you force them into obvious passing situations you dial up the blitzes you turn up the pressure and Penn State should be able to force turnovers and not allow Bowling Green to drive down the field now I'm also confident in the fact that they don't have that back door cover that the total goes over so the spread is actually moving it was 30 42 on on FanDuel and now it's 352 and the total's at 482 for Penn State you you want to obviously be able to complete the shutout for four quarters Penn State has the depth to to do that defensively aside from linebacker linebacker is but Penn State's running a 425 right so the talent that's on the defensive line the talent that's in the cornerback room the safety room is frankly still better and would play at both Bowling Green than the Bowling Green starters o I know that's uh that is quite the criticism there of the Bowling Green Team but if I'm being honest that yes Penn State's backups a majority of them would start at Bowling Green if I'm being honest so that's why I think Penn State's able to preserve the shutout in this case 42 to nothing is my final score I think that's fair weather reports are interesting bring a rain jacket just in case but I I like the weather reporting industry because that's the only job and and I think making your Sports Picks as well uh where you can be wrong and wrong on a consistent basis and still keep your job so the weather reports said that hey it's going to rain it's going to rain cons pretty consistently there's a 90% chance of precipitation and now that's changed it looks like there might be some rain earlier in the day but it's going to clear up as kickoff approaches so game time the game itself won't have a lot of expected rain but I would just bring rain gear rain jackets anyway just to be on the safe side and hopefully it doesn't ruin the season opener but still I kind of Stand by that I think six touchdowns is a lot I I respect Bowling Green defense enough for a Mac team this is a team that is going to contend for a conference title so just because Penn State wins hypothetically whether it's my score prediction 42 to nothing or it's still a 78 touchdown deficit that's not because Bowling Green isn't good com in comparison to the competition it means that Penn State is just that much better so that's my final score prediction 42 to nothing just by Nature the game's going to go relatively quickly I know there's a lot of new stoppages and timeouts and everything else right but because these two teams are going to for Penn State you want to emphasize the Run game you want to see how the offensive line responds after a not so great performance against West Virginia pass blocking was great run blocking was honestly abysmal it it did not it did not show it did not show enough you need to show that against Bowling Green that that West Virginia the W the tape against West Virginia should not be of any concern and if you're Bowling Green the only way to try and hypothetically beat Penn State in a crazy world that doesn't exist you need to shorten the game you need to run the football you need to play keep away from Penn State's offense you can absolutely not get into a shootout with Penn State if you are Bowling Green that's just the fact of the matter Bowling Green is obviously lower comp competition but the offense the system is not built to get into a scoring battle with the Penn State nney lines game 's at noon kickoff is scheduled for noon it's on the Big 10 Network excited to see the home opener in person if you're going to the game again safe travels if you are traveling from out of town and enjoy the day that's going to do it for this edition of locked on nitty Lions I appreciate you checking out this episode please leave a like on it let me know down in the comments section your expectations your final score predictions for this one and if you're not already become an everyday or subscribe to lockon nney Lions on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast for the latest conversations around your favorite Penn State sports teams and again thank you 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