Penn State head coach James Franklin was happy to see his team come out of the Big Ten championship game as healthy as possible despite coming out on the losing end of things against Orgeon. But the Nittany Lions will unfortunately still be without one of its key defensive players for the duration of the College Football Playoff as safety KJ Winston was confirmed to be out with his long-term injury according to Franklin this week.
The writing was on the wall that Penn State would make the College Football Playoff this year for the first in James Franklin’s tenure, but when they made the Big Ten championship game, the question then became how high of a seed they could be.
While the Nittany Lions lost against Oregon, they were given a favorable path by the committee; facing SMU at home in the first round and then taking on Group of 5 team Boise State if they get past the Mustangs.
This draw might be the best out of any team in the 12-team tournament, including those who received a bye, but ultimately it will come down to what Penn State does on the field.
After the Nittany Lions defense was taken apart by Oregon in the title game, there are some concerns about how they might hold up when facing another team of that caliber.
Someone who would certainly help that unit is KJ Winston, Penn State’s star safety who was lost with a “long-term injury” after the Bowling Green game, which was the second contest of their season.
Unfortunately, Franklin put that notion to bed.
“We will not get KJ back for this year,” he said per Daniel Gallen of 247Sports. “Like I mentioned before, long-term injury.”
That is a huge blow to Penn State and their chances of winning the national championship this year since Winston was viewed as one of the best safeties in the country and even earned Big Ten Player of the Week honors following the opener against West Virginia when he had 12 tackles and forced a fumble.
The Nittany Lions will then have to keep running out the same secondary unit, led by Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatley on the back end to go with their young corner group.
