Penn State offensive lineman Noah Beh has been suspended for a violation of team rules coach James Franklin said on the Big Ten teleconference Tuesday.
Franklin, who didn’t go into specifics about the suspension was asked about potential players that could replace offensive right tackle Andrew Nelson who sustained a season-ending injury in Penn State’s win over Maryland this past weekend.
With Nelson and now Beh out of the mix Franklin said that Paris Palmer, Brendan Mahon, Chasz Wright and Will Fries all could see time at the tackle spot. Palmer started last season at left tackle but has not started a single game this season, although he was the first off the bench and back into the rotation following Nelson’s injury. Technically Palmer played in relief at left tackle while Mahon flipped to right tackle, where Nelson had played prior to injury.
Franklin had this to say about Beh prior to the season, who was noticeably absent from the three-deep depth chart.
‘I think you always want as much depth as you possibly can, and we don’t really look at it as just left tackle,’ Franklin said ‘It’s the tackles in general; the tackle position. The left tackles and the right tackles are all fighting for who is the third-best tackle, who is the fourth-best tackle and so on and so forth.’
‘And Noah has been a part of that conversation during all of camp. Noah has really shown some nice things and made some dramatic improvement from last season, but there are still some areas that he needs to work on. Those areas have been communicated clearly to Noah, and he’s a guy that we still feel like has a bright future here at Penn State. But there’s just some areas that he needs to continue to invest in to help him have the type of role that he wants for us on our offensive line.’
Penn State will have an entire week to figure out the new look offensive front as the Nittany Lions prepare to host Ohio State on Oct. 22.
