Penn State defensive end Brad Bars will miss the 2013 season after rupturing his achilles tendon earlier this week. The program announced the injury late Thursday afternoon.
A redshirt junior, Bars suffered the injury in his right posterior ankle while working out, according to Dr. Peter Seidenberg, the Nittany Lions’ team physician. Dr. Scott Lynch, the team’s orthopedic physician, will operate on Bars within the next several days and his rehabilitation is expected to take approximately 4-6 months, according to Seidenberg.
At 6-foot-3, 251-pound Bars was expected to challenge for significant playing time this season placing second on the post-spring depth chart behind C.J. Olaniyan at one of the defensive end spots. Big Ten freshman of The Year, Deion Barnes is slated to start opposite Olaniyan.
Bars played in eight games last year, recording two tackles in the win over Navy.
The injury to Bars will bump up redshirt freshman Evan Schwan, Derek Dowrey and redshirt junior Tyrone Smith to the forefront of the defensive end position. True freshman Garrett Sickels and Curtis Cothran are also possibilities to fill the role Bars’ vacancy leaves behind.
For Penn State and coach Bill O’Brien, the Bars injury is the latest example of how close the Nittany Lions are to critical issues with roster depth. As the Nittany Lions sit nearly twenty scholarships shy of the Division I limit thanks to NCAA sanctions each injury is a blow to a roster already spread thin. For O’Brien, the healthier the Nittany Lions are the better.
