Lions exploring options on OL

Penn State head coach James Franklin announced Tuesday afternoon that Nittany Lion senior tackle Paris Palmer would miss the rest of the 2016 season due to injury.

Noting in his introductory comments that the Nittany Lions were suffering from an injury problem, the head coach reeled off a list of players that have been lost to the season due to injury including Andrew Nelson, Paris Palmer, Chance Sorrell, Jake Cooper, Brandon Polk, Nick Bowers, and Jan Johnson, among others.

As a result, Franklin was asked about the health status of Connor McGovern, the true freshman who was forced out of the Indiana game due to injury, as well what decisions had been made regarding redshirting freshman linemen Will Fries and Michal Menet.

"Yeah, Connor, it's too early in the week to make that decision" said Franklin. "We have all week long to figure that out. Obviously, it also helps with it being an 8:00 night game on the front end. Not real excited about coming back, not getting back here until late at night. But on the front end, it does give us a little bit more time to get some guys healthy and ready to go. So it's too early to say on that."

As for the Nittany Lions' two true freshmen who have not yet played a rep this season, Franklin said that the possibility of their redshirts being removed was discussed in a meeting.

"I did bring Michal Menet and Will Fries into my office. That conversation went really well," said Franklin. "Both those young men and their families are perfectly comfortable with us doing whatever we have to do to win and put the team first, so that conversation went really well.

Noting that the two players looked "beautiful" in his office, impressed by players that he hadn't taken a good look at individually - a point lost by the horde of big, strong young men at practice all virtually indistinguishable in pads on the practice field - Franklin said he was encouraged by the meeting.

"They have gotten big and strong and matured," Franklin said, transitioning to tell reporters what the plan is for the immediate future. "So we are not, at this point, doing anything. Will Fries would be the guy that's a little closer to Michal Menet, not from a readiness standpoint, but just our real need is at offensive tackle. Michal Menet could play tackle, but he's probably more suited inside and Will outside. So we'll see how it plays out. You'd love to keep those guys as red shirts if you possibly can. But the way this thing is playing out, you never know. We want to be prepared for it. So those guys will be up with varsity and get a bunch of reps."

Later in the press conference, Franklin was asked to clarify the status of Brendan Mahon, who missed the Indiana game due to an injury sustained two weeks ago in the Lions' 41-14 win against Iowa.

"Paris is out for the season. I did not answer the Mahon question," said Franklin. "We’ll see how that goes. In the past, I didn’t answer it at all. If a guy has a season-ending injury, I’ll give you that. But that’s as far as we’re going. We’ll see what happens with Mahon."