Penn State coach James Franklin is hopeful that the Nittany Lions will have their full complement of tight ends this when they open their home slate on Saturday against Ohio.
Against Purdue on Thursday, the now 1-0 Nittany Lions found themselves without sophomore tight end Theo Johnson due to an undisclosed injury. Johnson traveled with the team and was seen on the sidelines but did not dress for the game.
“We were hoping that we may have him available in that Purdue game,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “That’s not our call. But we were hopeful traveling to see if there was a chance of that and we’ll kind of go from there.”
Penn State managed perfectly fine without Johnson as Brenton Strange pulled down a pass from quarterback Sean Clifford then scampered for a 67-yard touchdown, while the physical Tyler Warren hauled in three receptions of his own for 15 yards, including one that set up first and goal on the Nittany Lions’ game-winning drive.
That said Johnson was certainly a loss for Penn State’s passing game, having hauled in 19 receptions in 2021 for 231 yards in an offense dominated by receiver Jahan Dotson.
“Everybody knows how much of a big time player [Johnson] is and how much respect that we have for him both on and off the field,” Franklin added. “So hopefully we’re able to get him back sooner rather than later. Hopefully that’s this week. We had to kind of scramble there because a big part of our game plan was 12 personnel and 13 personnel [multiple tight end packages].”
Depending on the nature of the injury, it will be interesting to see if Penn State opts to play Johnson this coming weekend against Ohio or gives him an additional week’s rest ahead of the Nittany Lions’ trip to Auburn next week.
This Saturday’s game against the Bobcats is scheduled for a noon kick while the Week 3 trip to Auburn is slated to kickoff at 3:30 p.m.
