Blue White Illustrated

S E P t E m B E R 5 , 2 0 1 5 B l U E w h i t E o N l i N E . c o m 11 M A T T   H E R B | m A t t @ B l U E w h i t E o N l i N E . c o m One of the more heartwarming pregame storylines of Penn State's visit to Temple –Nyeem Wartman-White's return to his native Philadelphia – turned heartbreaking on Saturday, as the red- shirt junior linebacker suffered a leg in- jury that will force him to miss the rest of the season. Wartman-White was injured while covering a punt in the second quarter, and although he walked to the sideline, he le? for the locker room a?er being ex- amined. Coach James Franklin revealed in his postgame news conference that the injury was season-ending. A?er two seasons at outside linebacker, Wartman-White was starting in the middle for the Nittany Lions, replacing last year's Big Ten tackles leader Mike Hull. The Lions' opener was an especially meaningful game for him because he was returning to the city in which he grew up. Earlier in the week, he had talked excit- edly about getting to play in Lincoln Fi- nancial Field, where he had watched Eagles games and had dreamed of some- day competing. For his teammates, Wartman-White's injury was one of the biggest disappoint- ments of Penn State's season-opening loss to the Owls. "All of us are really feeling for him," outside linebacker Jason Cabinda said. "It's very sad. And as you know, guys will have to step up. But I know he'll be on the sideline. He'll be supporting us like crazy. And being the leader that he is on the field, he'll be the same kind of leader off the field." It was a tough a?ernoon all around for Penn State's linebackers as, as Wartman- White's backup, Gary Wooten, and out- side linebacker Brandon Bell also were injured. As a result, Franklin was forced to call on true freshmen Jake Cooper and Manny Bowen. "We lost Brandon Bell for the game, we lost Wooten for the game, so then we ended up having to burn redshirts of Cooper and Bowen," Franklin said. "We weren't anticipating playing them. And we lost Nyeem Wartman for the season. So that was a factor for us on the defen- sive side of the ball." With Wartman-White gone, Penn State will have to do some reshuffling in advance of its home opener Saturday against Buffalo. Whether that means Cabinda moves into the middle, a posi- tion he played in spring practice, re- mains to be seen. But the sophomore said he'd be willing to do whatever is necessary. "I'd be comfortable moving to any po- sition on the field if it was in Coach [Bob] Shoop's best interest and our defense's best interest," Cabinda said, "even if that meant moving to corner." No adjustments. None. No plays beyond 10 yards. No threat at all. Sad, sad day because you didn't want to see this in week one. It's going to be a long year. I am seriously concerned about the offensive play-calling. We can't ad- just. mwaltrip Hey I have an idea. Let's try the same three plays that failed over and over. Keep going back to the well. That will confuse the defense and change the momentum of the game. ( I don't think I can stand a whole season of this again.) Joshua2415 I think [ESPN commentator Brock] Huard made a lot of sense. He acknowledged we have an OL problem but he said people are going to ask why Hack was so effec- tive under BOB. That BOB called the plays to Hack's strengths, not having him play within an 8 yard box. PSU65 For the longest time I always thought JoePa tried to fit the round pegs into the square holes. But – also for the longest time – he was quite successful in doing so. Sticking to the basics of football until the kids got it right. The jury remains out on Franklin, but he is perhaps exercising the same strategy with this team. And it will be a while be- fore we see any positive results. Yes, this was ugly today (in fact, the ugliness continues as I write). But having continually beaten any team since 1941, the odds of an upset become greater with each passing (and pardon my use of that word after today's offensive exhibition) year. While there appears to be little creativity to his offensive coaching (be it he or Donovan), it's still a bit early (in my opinion) to write him off. Lion10 O'Brien knew when to get out of town. It is going to take a while for the line to be good... if we can all accept that, we'll all get along. This is a team that wins 6-9 games... probably on the lower end of that. I'd settle for another 7-6 season. I'd be CONTENT with that. mkilvanik FROM THE WEB oNliNE REActioN to PSU'S lAtESt GAmE Wartman-White out for season Redshirt junior middle linebacker suffers leg injury while covering punt

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