Penn State coach James Franklin said after practice on Wednesday that Nelson is set to play.
– Original story-
Penn State is — as expected — mum on the status of starting guard JB Nelson ahead of the Nittany Lions’ clash with Ohio State this weekend. Nelson suffered an injury against Northwestern and was unavailable to play against UMass last weekend. That being said, Penn State coach James Franklin does expect Nelson to return this season, a good sign for the Nittany Lions at large.
“I expect JB back,” Franklin said on Tuesday. “I expect Vega [Ioane] to play, [and] I think Vega is playing really well. I’m very pleased with Vega. We view Vega like we do Drew Shelton. We view those guys as starters. And if you look at him, he’s been playing either starter’s reps or starting games anyway. He’s playing really well, will continue to play for us, and we do expect to get JB back.”
Nelson is already something of a replacement in his own right, slotting in along the offensive front after the medical retirement of Landon Tengwall before the start of the season. In Nelson’s absence, Penn State went with Ioane in the guard spot, but the depth chart beyond him is less clear aside from a collection of potential but largely unproven names. Backup center Nick Dawkins might be an option as well as potentially sliding right tackle Caedan Wallace inside in addition to true freshman Anthony Donkoh.
All told, Nelson’s return would give Penn State a welcome bit of stability headed into a game never short on trench warfare.
“We went into this year feeling like JB was going to factor in either as a starter or having starter-like reps,” Franklin said prior to the season. “That’s how I would have viewed him coming in the season, and he’s built on that. His habits are a lot better in terms of how he practices and approaches meetings and everything else. You can make the argument he may be our most physical offensive lineman. I know talking to our defensive linemen, they’ve got a lot of respect for him. So we expected him to play a significant role this year, either way.”
